“You know, I really enjoy lighting tire fires, and these damn tree huggers are just trying to shame me, and not give me any other viable alternatives.”
Why is that any different an attitude than yours? This behavior is literally killing our species. Unfortunately we don’t have a non-harmful viable alternative to the destructive behavior you enjoy. Perhaps it’s reasonable to consider changing that behavior.
Buy a ticket on a shipping vessel, for instance. It’s way slower than flying, but you can travel the world this way at a fraction of the carbon footprint.
I do find the idea of traveling via a shipping vessel interesting. Unfortunately, they are not well advertised and the routes are extremely limited when compared to an international flight.
I can do direct from Texas to Tokyo in under 13 hours. I did see ten day routes from a couple of east coast ports. However, traveling this way from Texas doesn't seem viable.
Perhaps I should expand on the definition of viable. I intended the definition: capable of working, functioning, or developing adequately
Ten days stretches the credibility of viable in my humble opinion. Not a fan of Quora, but the site suggested I could go Houston to Chiba in 26 days. Round trip would be 52 days.
I'm currently doing two round trip international flights a year. Previously I was taking four.
Two round trips would be 104 days of traveling a year on a ship versus my current 52 hours on an airplane.
I understand. As I said:
> Unfortunately we don’t have a non-harmful viable alternative to the destructive behavior you enjoy
Right now flying internationally is artificially cheap. It's cheap because we collectively have allowed our commonwealth to be exploited, at great cost to our health and our future. You have a choice today whether to participate in that exploitation. And (hopefully) soon enough, most of us will simply be priced out of this type of behavior, as the externalities are better accounted for.
I agree with you on these points. I would support adding carbon taxes to make flying more expensive. I'd support development of carbon neutral aircraft be it solar, or hydrogen powered aircraft.
My disagreement is, I do not think shaming will effectively change the people that fly. Shaming could spur other solutions, but I'd rather just lay out the arguments and then develop some carbon neutral solutions.
What mechanism do you envision to convince people to:
1. Be more environmentally conscious in their actions?
2. Affect systemic (governmental) for society to make more environmentally sound decisions?
Being shamed is not fun—I get that. But I don't know if there's an alternative path. We need to convince people that their current choices have very negative consequences for others. If that's not worthy of shame, I don't know what is.
regarding 1. I think people can be convinced without shaming. Pardon the generic example.
If people do X, then Y happens. Y is a bad thing because A,B and C. versus If you do X, you are bad person and are directly responsible for Y and it's effects A,B and C.
Both offer similar information, but the latter can produce resentment and irrational backlash.
Regarding 2. I confess I am at a loss at how to get government to take useful action. Have you seen a politician successfully shamed lately? It might be happening but it is not making headlines.
Why is that any different an attitude than yours? This behavior is literally killing our species. Unfortunately we don’t have a non-harmful viable alternative to the destructive behavior you enjoy. Perhaps it’s reasonable to consider changing that behavior.
Buy a ticket on a shipping vessel, for instance. It’s way slower than flying, but you can travel the world this way at a fraction of the carbon footprint.