this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2023
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But they're literally not. I have no way of controlling or even knowing about what corperations emit
Thats whats tripping everyone up, thinking these corporations are off isolated somewhere just producing climate change gases.
No, what theyre producing is what you're buying. When someone says an oil company is responsible for however much greenhouse gas emissions, what they mean is the greenhouse gas emissions when you the customer burn that gasoline in your vehicle. Plus gases emitted processing the oil and getting it to the store for you to buy it.
These companies "taking responsibility" for their emissions would mean halting production of most things you go and buy.
this is a systemic issue, not an individual one. I can't control what a company does, weather they choose to buy 100% renewable energy or not. and what about their suppliers? how could a consumer possible know about their business practices, let alone influence them? this isn't about people buying the wrong products. the rich are lighting the planet on fire for a buck, and they must be stopped.
How did you read what i wrote and get controlling companies? Its your own damn car, im accusing you yourself of emitting the greenhouse gases youre trying to pawn off on someone else.
my personal emissions are a flea's fart in the wind compared to the oil empire of BP or shell
They are literally the same emissions. If you ever see numbers associated with oil company emissions, the gas burned in your car makes up part of that number. Multiply that by everyone else burning gas in their cars, and you have the emissions associated with oil companies.
So, theres two ways to stop those emissions. If you think the oil companies themselves are responsible for those emissions, then they stop emitting, which means they stop producing gasoline, you go to the gas station and no one can get gas anymore. That's oil companies taking responsibility.
Or, the consumers take responsibility by no longer buying gas. Switching to electric cars or electing people to design less car centric towns.
I think a good way to look at this is to see just how many fingers are in how many different pies. You seem to be looking at the fossil fuel emissions problem 2-dimensionally when it is much more nuanced than that. Off the top of my head, you have to consider not just the consumers emissions or the manufacturing of the oil and gas, but the fracking, the constant construction of new oil pipelines, refineries, oil rigs, coal burning power plants, the emissions from all of those after completion, deforestation, then last, but probably the worst of all, the plastics industry which is intrinsically linked to the fossil fuel industry.
This is still probably missing a lot of components, but the point is, the individual pales in comparison to the amount of emissions that these companies are responsible for and it makes it worse when you consider that if they were to have a change of conscience and pivot to renewable they would still be mega profitable.
All of that pales in comparison to vehicle emissions. Its the single largest source of emissions in the US. Also, all of the other stuff is still at your demand, to produce the gasoline. Like i said, if you want those emissions to stop, all of them, that means they stop producing gasoline. They wont frack anymore, no more oceanic oil spills, no more pipe bursts.