Not having kid is the most effective thing anyone can do.
You can just adopt instead, raise them to be ethical. It should not be so controversial. You can be a parent without giving birth.
Also bringing a kid without their consent to this dying planet and then make them fix it (which due to their ancestor's screw ups and comfort) looks like a punishment by parents, pretty selfish. These kids already have jobs to perform before even born. I sure don't want my kids to suffer this disaster and without their consent.
Data conclusively indicates real-world climate change is tracking RCP8.5, the IPCC’s “worst case scenario”.
Clearly you don’t have children if you think having a child doesn’t change your lifestyle.
> Also bringing a kid without their consent to this dying planet and then make them fix it…looks like a punishment by parents, pretty selfish
Here’s a tip, don’t use this line on a first date.
Regarding lifestyle, I chose wrong word, not my first language. It's what and how you want your life that you don't want to compromise for climate crisis.
On the one hand, it is a very effective way to reduce your carbon footprint if you can do it. On the other hand, for many people it conflicts with one of the most basic human desires, which is life-defining for lots of the population.
As an analogy, if you asked people to be celibate you could guarantee that no new babies would come along even if birth-control-methods failed; a huge net positive! Despite that, sex is a basic human experience that many see as integral to their vision of a life, and it'd be controversial to seemingly impose that restriction on others.
tl;dr: no controversy in you doing you, sometimes controversy in you asking others to similarly do you
Yet each of these actions can be quantified in terms of CO2 no emitted or resources preserved. There is an impact, and that impact becomes apparent given sufficient scale and time.
One's choice not to have kids could very well provide exponential savings when compared to one's personal lifetime emissions/consumption when looking over generations.
I'm _very_ excited to be a tiny part in helping humanity solve one of our biggest problems.
- Just found this: https://workonclimate.org/
Individual action matters a lot. Yes corporations are those that need to carry out the ultimate change. So the thing where corporations "blame" individuals for climate/pollution is bogus. But as consumers and as employees we have a strong impact on the environment and should advocate for that.
It even rings a bit hypocritical if subsequently you say support organizations that put the onus elsewhere.
Eat meat, but only meat that is sustainably raised. Depending on the size of your lawn, you probably can raise a couple meat or egg chickens on the natural flora/fauna in your yard and table scraps. There are CSAs that raise only pastured eggs/chicken/hogs/beef without fossil-based grain inputs.
Meat is healthy, but yes, it is fossil-intensive in the modern era. But it doesn't have to be. There are zero-fossil options.
I just don't think being a vegetarian has impact... it's something you do to keep consistent with your worldview or morality, not to mitigate climate change.
An individual's actions does have an impact, albeit a small one. It is measurable (CO2 savings from not eating that meat). Discouraging individuals from participating in individual efforts will prevent the group from achieving scale.
In the past, workers formed unions and collectively bargained with governments and employers to reduce working hours down to the standard work week we know today. We could reduce this further to a 4- or a 3-day work week.
We could also use collective worker power to demand many other things, such as stricter environmental standards in the workplace, just as we bargained for stricter health standards in the past. Or better environmental standards for children in schools or for public spaces, just as we bargained for children's rights and other standards in the past. (All these modern standards were fought for, they were not handed out freely)
Unions are bad for environment. They block progress and force subsidies on old, inefficient and dirty technologies. Soviet Union had horrible environmental record.
[0] https://qz.com/690321/leonardo-dicaprio-took-an-outrageous-8...
How does a culture change? It starts with a courageous minority [1], composed of many individuals, who have "no impact as a consumer" but collectively they do have the power to influence the majority.
[1] https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dict...
If a small group of like-minded people decide to not have kids in the name of the planet, the effect would probably pale in comparison to the masses that don't hear and/or don't care about these climate change messages. I imagine the "real" solution would have to be one that doesn't require people to willingly change their way of life.
By that logic anything you do is useless. But personally not having own kid is the single most effective thing anyone can do. People can just adopt instead.
Adopting a child is totally different than having your own kid(s) and I’m guessing based on your comments that you don’t have a child.
2021: 8 billion
2050: 10 billion
Resources are finite. The world is not only ours, what about the animals and plants? Are we giving them enough space to thrive? Killing them will kill us, and our children too.
What PR and lies have you fallen for, to say individual actions don't matter? Actions have consequences. Each action is a vote. One vote doesn't matter, a lot of votes do. What are you voting for?
Giving love and safety to children who need it now is a noble act. Totally different? Maybe. But love is love. All humans come from the same source. No need to discriminate, let's spread love to all.
Dow Jones in 2022: 34,000
Maybe the Dow Jones is causing climate change!
Countries participating in the Olympics in 1896: 27
Countries participating in the Olympic in 2021: 197
No wait, the Olympics are what’s causing climate change!
> totally different than having your own kid
Why? Why does one need one's genes to care for a child and to be a parent. Your comment is just complete character attack "stupid". If it's so big issue, than may be don't kid yourself about doing anything that will reduce actual climate crisis.
What you can do is:
* a) find someone working on climate change, and help write software for them part-time as a volunteer
* b) brainstorm an idea for a site/app, and build it yourself (and of course post it to HN)
* c) quit your job, join an organization focused on climate change, and do some work
* d) start researching more about climate change until you can make a better choice about a or b or c
If you can't commit a big chunk of time to it, then research good orgs focused on climate change, and donate money to them (or angel invest in them). That's the next best thing you can do.