at the end of the day 'personal changes' as a fix for climate change are just another lie big corporations fed us to make it feel like the onus was on a personal level.

the amount of co2 that industries pollute and that various regulation would be able to change is multiple orders of magnitude compared to regular personal responsibility.

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Demiurge an hour ago | parent | next [-]

This sounds right. An individual person can’t change a complex system that gives him everything they have, from plastic forks to gas cars. The society can get together and agree on things, but the society clearly just isn’t concerned enough. There is no solution or workaround to this, unless certain scientific discoveries get made that change the warming trends by sheer coincidence. They would have to coincide with popular demand, like more attractive electric cars, and new materials, or fusion energy that’s cheap. Or, perhaps, AGI decide it for us.

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pingou an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Who do these corporations pollute for? Isn't it for individuals?

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inigyou an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Who benefits from a corporation? Is it the customers, the workers or the owners?

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hnaccount19293 an hour ago | parent [-]

In many cases, it's all three.

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fsflover 12 minutes ago | parent [-]

But not equally.

	▲	hnaccount19293 8 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		In some cases it might be and others it might not. In many cases that's going to be extremely hard to measure and equality might not even be desirable.

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sdellis an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

For the accumulation of wealth and power. This is the natural consequence of unregulated capitalist incentives. Do you think the corporations care about the individuals?

	▲	25 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		[deleted]
	▲	pingou 25 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I suppose you can see it that way, but ultimately the power is mostly in the hands of individuals, either by voting in elections or voting with their wallets. However, this does not mean corporations aren't actively trying to influence and manipulate them, or that they don't exert pressure on politicians. Aren't Americans responsible as a whole for electing Donald Trump, for example?

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hnaccount19293 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Changes to those corporations will obviously have downstream effects that voters will largely not tolerate.

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cxr an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"The amount[...] that industries pollute" is just "personal changes" with more steps.

	▲	inigyou 39 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Personal changes against the grain or personal changes following the grain. Imagine I want to be responsible by drinking soy milk but it's hidden in a corner of the supermarket. Now imagine every supermarket prominently displays soy milk and cow milk is hidden in the corner. Seems easier to make the change, right? Many people will change automatically because they don't really care and just do what's easiest.

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Robotbeat an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

I mean, in the real world, people will just vote out politicians who raise their gas prices.

	▲	inigyou an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Doesn't seem to have worked this time.