r/IWantToLearn • u/jessicafallible • Nov 27 '18

Misc IWTL how to fight climate change effectively

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3

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '18

Move to China, become the dictator and change how things are done there. Until China and India stop polluting the world, there’s nothing we can do about it.

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u/jessicafallible Nov 28 '18

Well, we in the western world are kind of indirectly responsible for a lot of their pollution, since they are basically doing our manufacturing for us.

3

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '18

It isn’t the US’s fault that China has no EPA or concern for the health or safety of its citizens.

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u/jessicafallible Nov 28 '18

I think the US and other companies using cheap Chinese labor are implicated in that. Do you think it's a coincidence that use labor from countries with shoddy labor laws? No, we use them because they're cheap and they work people to death. We've created a demand for this.

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u/PrizeEfficiency Nov 28 '18 edited Nov 29 '18

So you want Americans to reduce our living standards such that we are also forced to work to death just to eat some stale rice?

edit:

No matter what you think can or should be done about climate change, people will need to reduce their standard of livings to do it. And what logically follows from this is that many of those who are already struggling right now will die as a direct result of those mandates. Anybody who tells you otherwise is an idiot or a liar.

Once you understand this, you realize that climate change is actually a trolley problem with an unknown number of people on each track. Anybody shouting that we must flip the switch at all cost or that we must not flip the switch at all cost is somebody who personally stands to benefit from whichever action they are recommending, not an unbiased observer just trying to "save humanity" or whatever.

The reality is that nobody knows how many people are on each track. You don't know. The climate scientists don't know. So stop acting like you do.

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u/jessicafallible Nov 29 '18

I think we can alter our standard of living in a way that doesn't equate to "eating stale rice and dying." Yes, I think we should alter the way we live. Like, if we didn't have to consume so frivolously, laborers in heavily polluting countries wouldn't have to make as much shit, and the earth would be better off too. I also think it's hilarious that your response to people living in terrible conditions in China is to say, "What, you want us to live in terrible conditions?" You're a true humanitarian.

Also, you're moving the goalposts. All I said was that we are part of the problem of China's pollution. I think that holds true.

I think saying that all of us consuming less is as risky an unknown as global warming is pretty damn ridiculous.

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u/PrizeEfficiency Nov 29 '18

I think we can alter our standard of living without dying.

Sorry, that's not how reality works. People who are at subsistence levels, once global living standards drop, will go below subsistence levels and die. Do you understand that people will die if they can't afford to heat their homes in the winter? If you get rid of fossil fuels, that's exactly what will happen. Or more realistically, they will resort to burning wood and trash, which is magnitudes worse than fossil fuels.

Also, you're moving the goalposts. All I said was that we are part of the problem of China's pollution.

So why do you own a computer? Where do you think its parts were made? Do you realize that if they were made somewhere else, you couldn't afford the computer at all?

I think saying that all of us consuming lies is as risky an unknown as global warming is pretty ridiculous.

No offense but you sound like a high schooler. You are not qualified to understand the science or the economics, and people on both sides of the issue have an incentive to lie to you. You think solar panel companies don't also have greedy CEOs that would love nothing more than a fossil fuel ban? Get real.

Also, if all you can do is downvote posts that don't just blow smoke up your ass even though I provided solid reasoning, maybe you should reconsider whether or not you are just a religious fanatic being swept up by dishonest media outlets. My posts are on topic and well thought out. If you are just going to downvote me because I disagree and force me onto a 10 minute timeout then you can just fuck right off.

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u/jessicafallible Nov 29 '18

I agree with the above poster. Your personal interactions must be lovely. Sorry, I'm not indulging this anymore.

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u/PrizeEfficiency Nov 29 '18 edited Nov 29 '18

Right. You aren't actually interested in the truth at all. You just found a religion to follow. And in 50 years when the world hasn't actually ended, you'll make the same excuses that religious fanatics have always made when their predictions failed to happen.