Re:1500 Private Jets Fly to Davos for Climate Talks
by rgbrenner on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @09:02PM
(#18975008)
So I take it you don't believe in voting? Voting is nearly as worthless.
No one said your singular vote (with your wallet) would change everything. But just like voting you help push things in the right direction. And you can, with additional effort, influence more people to vote the same way as you.
Re:1500 Private Jets Fly to Davos for Climate Talks
by mikeash on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @09:10PM
(#18975052)
Voting magnifies the impact of the individual. Consider the impact on the climate of 40,000 people completely eliminating their CO2 emissions. The difference would be impossible to measure, even if it was the top 40,000 emitters on the planet. Maybe you'd push back the time to hit 2 degrees of warming by a day or something.
Now consider the impact of the right 40,000 people voting differently in the 2016 US Presidential elections. All sorts of things would look very different, including action being taken to fight climate change.
One person can make a difference, by influencing others. But you have to be smart about it. You can't just decide to fly less, and then declare that you're making a difference because one person can make a difference.
Silent Spring was written by a Rachel Carson and had real impact. However, her personal lifestyle was irrelevant.
PS: As to someone going first, that is not an issue when say a state adds a sales tax. In such cases the first person to pay the tax is a sign that it's already in place.