this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2025
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A lot of folks in the replies don't like imagining they might be problematic... Sorry folks; we're all to blame.
a single flight on a private jet smashes any amount of carbon I could output in my entire lifetime. it is not all of us equally, it is a handful of ultrawealthy people destroying the planet.
That's off by several orders of magnitude! The number I found from Nature is an estimated average of 3.6 tons of CO~2~ emitted per private jet flight in 2023. By contrast, a person in the United States averages about 16 tons per year. That's still nuts to think that one private jet flight has roughly the same CO~2~ output as about three months of living for the average person, but I for one, have a lifetime that's a bit longer than 3 months.
Carbon tax. Double rates for private jets.
Taxes just become prices for being evil when targeted this way, they don't solve the fundamental reason for the existence of the issue. Solve the problem, don't band-aid it.
Use the taxes to subsidise green alternatives. Carbon taxes on fuel get spent on building bike lanes for example.
That can be a somewhat nice supplement, but not a solution. The solution is, of course, Socialism, and strong central planning in infrastructure such as green energy and public transit.
The people who own the private jets choose the tax rates.
Luigi wants to know their location
Yet here you are using a device created by both stripping the earth of resources and exploiting already suffering humans to argue that you're not a significant part of the problem... Yes the ultra wealthy are worse, but that doesn't mean we aren't bad.
Everybody Sucks Here. Now what?
literally https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/
Oh you got me. This comic has negated everything I've said and proven that my perspective is just wrong...
Correct
Nah, this is just defeatism. If people want to exist in society, they have to play by the rules of society, so it's better to change society.
Those kids covered in cobalt are just trying to exist in a society.
This kind of "you choose to use deeply exploitative systems that have no real alternatives" rhetoric is wrong. If there are no real alternatives within the system, then it is important to push to change the system, not blame those who exist within it. Blame the Capitalists for engaging in horrible labor practices, and those complacent. Don't blame the people engaging with what's available.
Who makes the decisions to do this?
And who forced us to use phones and computers by making everything digital/online? Are we to be blamed bcs we have a car that could've been electric ages ago? That car we need to go to a job producing more stuff for the benefit of stock holders?
Is it us that need to grow the economy for those same people bcs that's the system we live in? Did we ask for planned obsolescense?
Is it a coincidence big oil coined the phrase ‘carbon footprints’ ? You're shifting blame as intended, everyone knows who the biggest polluters are and why.
You're right. You have no choice in any of this... Victims and villains.
This is just a thought terminating cliche that capitalists have developed now that the problems with the system are undeniable. It’s the classic retort of the scum bag, after they’ve realized “I didn’t do it” won’t fly, to say “well, everyone does it!"
No. I'm not minimizing the role capitalism has, I'm reminding people that as long as they participate in any capacity in capitalism that they are causing harm. Look at the replies to my post. They verify what I said. People will go to great lengths to separate themselves from fault.
millions of Africans live and eat close to our human nature and in balance with their surroundings
https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-myth-of-the-noble-savage-55316