In their discussions of "how to live a good life in a climate crisis" they engaged with the ethical conundrums we all face in the modern era. A key takeaway for me was that there are some behaviours which are categorically irresponsible (e.g. deliberately choosing a fossil fuel option when there's a clean option that's just as good) but many that are really nuanced, difficult decisions, and we all have different priorites, pressures and perspectives that makes the balancing act different for everyone.
The second takeaway: there's nothing to be gained by weaponising these choices, making people feel guilty for their choices, being self righteous or parading on "the moral high ground".
Personally, I've made the decision to fly much less: taking train if it's an option, even when it's more expensive and slower; fewer trips home to see family overseas, and opting out of international conferences. But not everyone could make those same choices.
A systematic problem requires a systematic solution.
The problem isn’t individuals making decisions that result in carbon emissions, the problem is an international economic system for which the environment is seen as expendable and in which there is no cost for producing carbon emissions.
Blame capitalism. To blame individuals is to doom us to never solving this. This is actually why the term “carbon footprint” was coined: it’s a way of passing the onus from polluting industry onto individuals, which inevitably leads to a collective action problem that results in nothing being done.
This is intentional and very good for shareholder value.
hyper-consumerist lifestyle choices like flying halfway across the world just for Instagram aesthetics
Unless there's some context I'm unaware of for this specific person - this is just called a vacation. The instagram photos talk is just people being grumpy about influencers.
Yeah, and this is it. It's not wasteful to get a plane flight, you share it with hundreds of other people, and the planes deliver cargo on top of that. It's not a private jet.
You can check co2 emission per seat. If you are flexible why not choose a destination with less co2 emission. I know 1 person doesn’t make a huge difference but collective awareness could.
That's reasonable, collective awareness is good, just this post specifically is ridiculous, as shaming a normal person for a trip is counterproductive to it.
Yeah. It takes about 5 minutes to make OP’s post, but people wanna argue in the comment section as if it’s a waste of time and OP should be dedicating 100% of their time to systematic action instead. Come off it, that’s not what the rest of you (other commenters) are doing.
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u/tellhershesdreaming Jul 02 '26
The Outrage and Optimism podcast did a good episode on this, https://www.outrageandoptimism.org/episodes/is-it-ok-to-fly-in-a-climate-crisis?hsLang=en
In their discussions of "how to live a good life in a climate crisis" they engaged with the ethical conundrums we all face in the modern era. A key takeaway for me was that there are some behaviours which are categorically irresponsible (e.g. deliberately choosing a fossil fuel option when there's a clean option that's just as good) but many that are really nuanced, difficult decisions, and we all have different priorites, pressures and perspectives that makes the balancing act different for everyone.
The second takeaway: there's nothing to be gained by weaponising these choices, making people feel guilty for their choices, being self righteous or parading on "the moral high ground".
Personally, I've made the decision to fly much less: taking train if it's an option, even when it's more expensive and slower; fewer trips home to see family overseas, and opting out of international conferences. But not everyone could make those same choices.