Quote:
Originally Posted by belsarius
This is the crux of the point that the mainstream doesn't get. Us people with the belief we need to decarbonize fast aren't under the impression that we can maintain the standard of living. Capitalism is unsustainable because it relys on infinite growth with finite resources.
We NEED to decarbonize. Every year we delay makes it worse on the planet. And yes that means we need to get over personal car ownership. We need to get over unlimited power and focuses on wattage as much as we focus on calories.
The serious discussion, is what are we willing to give up today in order to preserve a tomorrow for our children. Cons love to point to the spending of left wing governments and cry about the debt load on the children. Well I love to point to the fact that if we don't change very quickly, the debt load will be the least of the future generations worries.
And yes, I have a car, and a phone and I use them. I have no choice. What I like about pushing these short timelines is that it is going to force behavioural changes, and we won't like it. The western world today needs a heavy dose of medicine we don't like. And while the left is trying to shove it down our throats, the right just wants to plug their ears and say we can maintain what we have, just don't worry about it.
We cannot sustain our lifestyles right now, and we need to make hard choices. But it is much easier to listen to someone tell me how we don't need to change than someone telling me I do. Even when all of the evidence available says that if we don't, we are going to be in serious trouble in only a couple more generations.
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This is the epitome of the naivety and delusional thinking that I'm talking about. There is zero evidence that we can't sustain our standard of living, become more energy efficient, and mitigate the impacts of climate change while allowing people in developing nations improve their standard of living. I'd encourage you to read some of Alex Epstein's work which delves into these issues.