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These Climate Activists Make People Uncomfortable -- And It's Working
(www.rollingstone.com)
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this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2024
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You can find other orgs that fight against climate change who promote veganism within their organization and to the general population. Greenpeace, for example. Hell, even Greta Thunberg, who's had more of an impact than these other guys, is vegan.
The idea is to "be the change", and you can't be telling one group (i.e. the fossil fuel industry) to stop doing what they are doing, while acting in ways that demonstrably harm the environment needlessly.
A plant-based diet, perhaps above all else, is one of the most powerful tools we have to fight climate change. And once you convince one person to go vegan, they will likely change their lifestyle beyond diet to reduce their carbon footprint and rely less on the fossil fuel industry.
The industry won't go anywhere if they still have 8 billion customers. As individuals, our day-to-day lives impact their bottom line; we can make them money, or we can prevent them from making money.
I don't discredit their efforts, but their credibility. It would go a long way if their members showed that they were serious about climate change in their own lives, while fighting against the industry.
Anyway, I just asked the question, since I don't know this group. Perhaps they are all vegans, and they go after the livestock industry, too.
Yeah, of course it’s always good. No one is denying that.
But my point is the context. Following an article about a climate group that is seeing positive results in hounding the fuck out of some of the assholes responsible, your reaction actually runs cover for the assholes. See what I’m saying?
“Average citizen foils a home robbery as he’s walking by with his dog.”
You: “pfft. But does he volunteer his time to help those people starving in his city?”
Like, what the fuck? Yes, we all know it’s good to cut out what you can—it’s better to ride a bike than drive a car. It’s better to eat less meat than meat all the time. It’s better to be vegetarian than eat meat. It’s better to be vegan than vegetarian. But to say if you’re not doing ALL OF THE ABOVE, FUCK YOU doesn’t help anyone but the people truly responsible for the climate crisis. It’s turning your attention away from those who output megatonnes carbon into the atmosphere and who literally engineered the term “carbon footprint” to shift blame and focus away from them (which you have picked up the torch on, which is my point) and onto us, the people who don’t put out in a year what one of these companies is responsible for in a day or a week.
Again, you’re not wrong, it’s great to do what you personally can, but in this context, you’re not proving that point. You’re saying, “oh yeah, well what’s your carbon footprint?! Did you make those signs out of recycled paper? Did you drive here to make this climate change denier face their crimes?!” For that, you kinda suck in this context. No offense.