Political Memes

I'd argue industry is the primary culprit, but they ain't wrong that billionaires emit a massive amount of CO2 more that the average Joe/Jane

It’s this realization that led me to buying a truck. I always wanted one but couldn’t justify it, too wasteful. Well, after this shitshow I realize that all my guilt has been to naught, only there to placate the masses to reduce in order for the billionaires to get away with anything.

So, when I needed a new vehicle, I got the one I wanted. Ironically it’s both the largest and best gas mileage car I’ve ever owned (still got a hybrid, but because it’s cool, gas savings are an appreciated benefit).

I still can’t shake all the guilt, but I absolutely love my vehicle at least.

The thing is, even if it's true that the average billionaire uses 1,000,000x as much energy as the average person, there are so few billionaires that most of the world's CO2 is still emitted by the other 8.2 billion.

We definitely should make it so there are no billionaires. Tax them out of existence, and if that doesn't work, axe them out of existence.

Having said that, we also need to take responsibility for our own wasteful lives. Just look at how inefficient cars are. In North America it's perfectly normal to jump into a vehicle and haul around multiple tons of steel just to go get coffee. Another major source of CO2 is electricity and heat. Thankfully solar cells are getting so cheap that within a few decades (if the oil lobby can be defeated) most electricity will probably be solar. But, should we really be living in places where the heat needs to be turned on for 6 months of the year?

Canada is bringing in hundreds of thousands of immigrants per year, and the total population is growing at something like 1 million more people per year. Each one of those people becomes one of the most energy-using people on the planet, partially because the North American lifestyle is wasteful, partially because Canada is insanely cold half the year and requires massive energy for heating. Every new Canadian, whether a birth or an immigrant makes the world's CO2 footprint much bigger. Maybe Canada should start shrinking and not growing, and the population should move to places where such a massively energy intensive lifestyle is not necessary.

Articles like this always seem like they're people looking for a way to shift the blame to someone else. This time it's the billionaires. Other times it has been corporations. People never take responsibility for their own lives.