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this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
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Sure, but maybe we could start quantifying the scale of flights to COP28 in terms of hamburgers consumed? I'm tired of the burden to correct for industrial sized pollution being placed on the backs of consumers. Yes. My eating almost no beef over the course of a year helps. I can cut out the 10-12 cheeseburgers I eat. Will my 12 cheeseburgers a year balance a single analyst flight to COP28?
The reason I say it's whataboutism, is because both need to be fixed unrelated to one another.
We need to get the upper class to stop being awful and we also need to get eating habits that are long term sustainable for an ever growing population with a shrinking supply of fresh water, which farming requires a massive share of.
I completely agree on that, and while I'm obviously being a bit snarky, the best pressure we could put on rich people and industries would be to frame this as "we're sacrificing so THEY can live large". So a "hamburger index" isn't necessarily out of order.
It's not "whataboutism" to frame the scale of each contributing aspect of addressing climate change. Cutting a single rich person's private jet flights by a flight a month will continue a LOT more than me cutting my remaining dozen cheeseburgers a year. I'm down to do that if the rich person also is willing to cut those flights though.
If "people are sacrificing their lives so I can be rich" would even remotely affect any one of their actions, we wouldnt be here discussing this. Sadly.
No but you are not alone. 12 cheeseburgers times 8 billion people would balance thousands of COP28s. Thats what its about. Sure, one billionaire pollutes like 100k people, but a million people pollute like 10 billionaires.
Dont get me wrong though, Im definitely not saying big pollutors sholdnt be held responsible. And obviously youre already contributing to the cause.
Oh for sure. 👍 The scale of that would be huge. It was like when Obama asked Americans to get oil changes and tune ups. The media acted like that was silly to ask, but that would have made a noticeable impact. I'm not disputing scale, but I doubt you'll get folks to cut back on beef so long as they see the wealthy aren't sacrificing anything. "Why should i give up MY creator comforts when ONE FLIGHT from a billionaire will undo all my sacrifices for a whole year?" We need some HUGE wealth taxes on the ultra-luxury gear that pollutes the most. THEN I think we can put more pressure on people to cut back on the small luxuries.