Building a better world

Thanks for your response, itsnicole. I don’t recall seeing your username in the past so welcome to the online forum. (I apologize if you’ve been a previous contributor and I missed your comments.) You say “many of us are doing what we can” and that is admirable but in the big scheme of things, are the options you list doing much, if anything, to affect global emissions? Walking and biking, I can agree, but public transit? Public transit operates at 100% capacity with only 50% or less ridership. At least with cars, if they’re parked, they’re not spewing carbon. Reducing waste and plastic? Packaging for most items is not optional for end users. And what are considered local sustainability efforts? What policies have prioritized the planet without taxpayer subsidies or higher taxpayer costs?

You talk about systemic accountability but where is it? COP30 is currently taking place in Brazil. Since it is ongoing, there are no reports of how many private planes and how many commercial planes have flown to Belem (I don’t know of many, if any, flights direct to Belem). But if the recent past is any indication, we’re talking hundreds of both private and commercial planes, trains, and automobiles. It is reported that Brazil decimated thousands of acres of the Amazon rainforest to make way for a new highway to Belem. In California, you have Newsom doing nothing of value in regards to forest and fire management and instead, he allows forests to burn, spewing carbon emissions that easily surpass whatever carbon emissions were “saved” for the next decade, if not half century.

That being said, congratulations for attempting to do your part and for the debatable recommendations. I imagine most people are for choice – if one wants to make the effort, more power to them. On the other hand, I imagine most people are tired of the holier-than-thou attitudes and easily exposed hypocrisy from those who spew carbon to their hearts’ content while lecturing everyone else about reducing their carbon emissions. As always, nobody mentions the two big elephants in the room among many calves: both China and India each having almost 1.5 billion in population who are increasing their use of fossil fuels to support their emerging economies. Essentially, the collective “we” are not moving away from fossil fuels. BTW, looking forward to more of your contributions to the online forum. The more the better.