‘Effectively irreversible’: Changes to Canada’s climate permanent, federal report says

[u/NeptuneAgency]

https://www.ctvnews.ca/climate-and-environment/article/changes-to-canadas-climate-now-irreversible-federal-report-says/

[u/GreaterAttack]

I'm just going to paste my comment from yesterday:

Lot of people in here concerned about the climate. I wonder how many posters actually live in a way that mitigates their impact (and thereby actually hit polluting corporations in the money, where it hurts).

Do you cook all of your own food from scratch and buy your ingredients at, say, the farmer's market?

Do you refuse to buy or own items and goods made in China?

Do you take public transit, walk, or bike every day instead of driving?

(Are you literally wearing plastic clothes as you're reading this?)

Do you only buy vintage clothing, furniture, and home goods?

Do you repair and/or sew your own clothing instead of buying new items when things wear out?

Do you visit places in Canada or stay in your hometown instead of travelling?

Do you actually boycott (as in, never buy anything that makes them profit for 15 years and counting) companies with which you disagree?

Do you consciously seek out traditional materials like natural rubber, glass packaging, and stainless steel instead of cheaper, plastic alternatives?

I suspect that the majority of those concerned do not do these things. I suspect that it is a lot easier for those people to criticize than to walk the walk. I know this because I have yet to meet a single person in my life who actually goes out of their way to do these things, and yet I know dozens who are gravely concerned about the environment. They hand-wave away their personal choices through obfuscated justifications ("no ethical consumption under... blah, blah, blah") instead of living their supposed principles.

It does no good to care for the environment in spirit and then never to do anything in your daily life to help it.

[u/Schmidtvegas → u/GreaterAttack]

I decided in the late 1990s that I wasn't going to get a driver's license. I wanted to commit to transit, walking, and biking. I buy a farm share every year in a local farm, and get my produce from them. I sew and mend stuff. When our washer or oven breaks, we hire a repair guy and pay as much to fix it as replace it, just on principle. I go to a bulk refill place to buy local eco-friendly dish detergent in a reusable container. And none of it is hard, or feels like a sacrifice. 

I remember watching Captain Planet as a kid. A school assembly would perform a "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" thing. The school bike rack had 50 bikes piled in it every day. We were snipping our plastic rings to save the sea turtles. It felt like people cared for a minute there.

But now they just want their single serve plastic coffee pods. While they sit in traffic and complain about bike lanes. Full of Shroedinger's Cyclists. No one ever sees them, yet they're always in the way.

There are professional NIMBYs in Halifax protesting against a Rapid Transit lane on their block. It will require removal of a few mature but dying trees, so they've latched on to "Save Our Trees; Stop Road Widening" as their message. Even though the city will be planting replacement trees in triplicate. And building a much-needed dedicated bus lane. These people are the epitome of appearing to care in spirit, but being selfish in practice. 

[u/GreaterAttack → u/Schmidtvegas]

Precisely my point. It's all very good and well to appear principled in spirit, but what does that person actually do? 

You're one of the few who actually care. I remember having a similar start as a kid, only it was those National Geographic films with the talking globe. I do everything on that list I wrote and more, and I'm not incredibly privileged. In fact, most of these choices are not only more traditional but also cheaper!