this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2023
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In France, I understood the fight against climate change is probably already over when we had 40ยฐC at midnight one day of the previous summer.
It's an eary feeling to feel ultra hot air in the middle of the night coming from an opened window.
Not saying I'm not trying to act against climate change on my level but I know we already lost.
Be careful with that statement because that's what Oil is pushing now:
The goal is ensuring people do not require action from their political representatives, be it by ignorance or by resigning.
The other prong of attack is blaming consumers/individuals. This is useful for them as it keeps those that want action busy (recycling, planting trees, using bikes, buying EVs or using trains, avoiding plastic, etc.) and shifts blame on to the rest.
Not that any of those actions are bad, but aren't at the core of the problem, like blaming someone for wasting water for taking a shower while you have an olympic pool.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220504-why-the-wrong-people-are-blamed-for-climate-change
https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2022/01/31/climate-change-fossil-fuel-industry-individual-responsibility
Climate Town - The Troll Army of Big Oil
So what I happen to have the same stance as the oil industry?
I consistently try to vote against politics who are not doing anything for the environment.
I didn't vote initially for Macron because he barely does anything for the environment but then I had to choose between Marine Le Pen (far right and often considered as racist) or Macron. Both of them really bad to fight against climate change.
In my country at least, you only have an illusion of democracy with our current system. And Macron works only on announcement that they carefully draw back a few months later when they already have benefited from the political gains of announcing yet another ambitious climate plan.
Maybe the oil industry says this is lost because they know they control fully the politics in power.
Again, I do as much on my level and I'm about to embark in a 10h train journey across France to avoid taking a 2h flight. I'm trying. I'm just saying we are delaying the inevitable which is on its own already a good thing.
But this mechanically cannot work. Our president is elected for 5 years and has no reason to lose votes for something that will be an issue for the next generations. And we cannot elect people who care about the environment because the populist far right parties are too strong right now and gathering support through xenophobia and racism.
Do your best for the environment but just keep in mind that we need to prepare for the worst for the next generations. I think we are doing a disservice to them to tell them we are actively trying to fix climate change when the CO2 emissions are very clearly increasing.
Oil subsidies have never been higher. It's fucked up.
Everyone feels this way, or at least most people. If there was a sane green party in your country, mine or elsewhere it will get a majority easily (though would have to fight disinformation with tooth and nail).
I've got kids, and I felt like you. Felt that we're screwing their world to a tipping point and leaving them in a boring mad max-like situation.
But at the same time, the number of brilliant scientists, engineers and common people that are trying their best helping us out of this mess are the largest ever.
Maybe we won't apply enough change that it matters, but while we're at it, we should try our best. And I'm not talking about the personal responsibility bullshit companies want us to believe, but social action.
Do you want change? Look for local groups that promote it and volunteer.