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Re:Climate threats now dominate long-term risks, survey of g... by Polylactic_acid on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @07:44PM (#22060559)
I know its the trend to say individual effort is useless but I think the best thing about individual effort is it gets you in the mindset of conserving and a population that has made a habit of putting in their part will be extra frustrated when they see corporations and governments not putting in their part.

It also prepares people for systematic change which will result in us having to do most of these things anyway.

Re:Climate threats now dominate long-term risks, survey of g... by kovek on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @07:52PM (#22060612)
Would be cool if instead of me thinking about offsetting my emissions for the flight tickets I buy... The government would implement a tax that just does that.

And they could do similarly for all other products relating to emissions.

The government could achieve that by installing the right taxes of these energy sources destroying the environment.

Re:Climate threats now dominate long-term risks, survey of g... by jdnenej on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @08:37PM (#22060865)
It would be cool but they haven't done it and we don't have time to sit and wait. If we start self enforcing these rules on ourself then when it comes to election time people will be more open to voting for a government that does this.
Re:Climate threats now dominate long-term risks, survey of g... by adrianN on Thursday January 16, 2020 @12:25AM (#22061904)
The people likely to self-enforce these rules are exactly the people that would already vote for a carbon tax. The real problem are the majority who either don't care, or actively believe that climate change is a Chinese hoax.
Re:Climate threats now dominate long-term risks, survey of g... by danbolt on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @09:03PM (#22061023)
A nice element of carbon taxes is that, if desired by voters, can be revenue-neutral and substitute other tax revenues. This helps encourage your economy to grow in ways that avoid environmental externalities.

Canada has recently implemented one federally and it has a lot of pushback in regions where a larger portion of their economy has historically come from bitumen tar sands. Other regions with different economies are more receptive to it.

Re:Climate threats now dominate long-term risks, survey of g... by joe_the_user on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @10:58PM (#22061566)
Would be cool if instead of me thinking about offsetting my emissions for the flight tickets I buy... The government would implement a tax that just does that.

Taxes to stop behavior are bunk in this context. There's a lot of consumption that's necessary for many in some amount and luxury for other who afford a vast amount. Taxes cut into some people's basic survival and economic activity while not stopping over people's consumption.

What is necessary is the state to dictate to various industries and companies that they must stop CO2 production - by changing their products and production methods.

The simplest thing is that US is to mandate a lot more travel by bus. No one likes that but hey, no like a burning planet.

Re:Climate threats now dominate long-term risks, survey of g... by Polylactic_acid on Thursday January 16, 2020 @12:13AM (#22061850)
> more travel by bus. No one likes that but hey, no like a burning planet.

Says who? I hate driving, I find it the most soul crushing and time wasting activity there is. In comparison I find taking the bus to be relatively relaxing and cheaper.

What I don't like is a shitty bus service that doesn't take me to where I need to go or only comes every hour. Some areas may only have a shitty bus service and this is probably where you got the idea from but lets not pretend that this is just a reality of public transport.