• Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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    11 months ago

    aurgh, no

    plastics in the environment is clearly a separate issue to climate change, i don’t understand why people INSIST on conflating them and acting as if not wanting straws in the forest is somehow a distraction tactic…

    Corporations are responsible for climate change, but individuals are responsible for littering and that littering is to a large degree solved by making things that break down quickly.

    • Konlanx@feddit.de
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      11 months ago

      But the corporations are selling us the litter.

      Of course it’s not okay to throw your trash out in nature, no argument here. The source of that problem is corporations, though. They produce stupid packaging and tools made out of cheap plastic that is bad for the environment. It happens due to the same greed that causes climate change.

      Corporations are directly responsible for their product, the trash they create and their impact on the environment.

      Don’t let them tell you otherwise, because that’s what they are trying to do.

      • sabreW4K3@lemmy.tfOP
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        11 months ago

        Corporations could’ve been growing bamboo and making straws out of them for decades, they chose plastic because it was cheaper. They very much has a significant role to play in this.

        • DessertStorms@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          I don’t entirely disagree about there being a profit motive, because there is always a profit motive, but I would also like to point out that there is a very real and mostly ignored group of people, who the single use bendy straw was invented for, that not only need but depend on single use plastic straws to live (and no, the alternatives aren’t good enough source), so there is a legitimate and important use for them, that anyone might end up relying on.

          And also that plastic straws were never actually a problem, they consist of 0.003% of plastics in the ocean, and their banning only took off because there was a sad photo of a cute turtle and it require zero effort from those who don’t actually need them to get that feel good “I’m helping!” boost, even though they weren’t helping at all (and actively hurting disabled people).

          The perfect illustration of this is the fact that in comparison, garbage from fishing makes up a whopping 46% of the plastic in the ocean, and there are many, horrible rather than cute-sad, photos of turtles in nets, yet doing anything about that, like stopping eating sea food, is something most people will adamantly refuse to even talk about, let alone do.

          It’s “fuck you got mine” at its finest.

          • sabreW4K3@lemmy.tfOP
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            11 months ago

            I hear you, but we could use hemp plastic for that our disabled friends and family, couldn’t we?

            I also hear you that it was escalated beyond what it should be, but at the same time, every little helps.

            As for fishing position, they should go back to hemp nets.

            • DessertStorms@kbin.social
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              11 months ago

              You’re missing the point.

              You don’t solve systemic problems with individual solutions.

              It not only doesn’t work, but is actively counterproductive - while people are busy policing others’ use of plastic or water or individual brands or whatever, and then patting themselves on the back for “saving the planet” by taking actions that have the impact of a drop in a thousand oceans, the corporations and the people behind them continue to rip us all off and destroy the planet in ways that we could absolutely never impact with individual choices.

              Stop suggesting hemp, start suggesting abolishing capitalism. Anything else is enabling the status quo.

    • The_Terrible_Humbaba@slrpnk.net
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      11 months ago

      Exactly. Corporations can’t, or don’t, force people to buy and do a lot of the things they choose to do.

      People don’t need straws, they also don’t need meat, or at least not nearly as much as the average person eats. If someone’s reading this, statistically they don’t need to drive nearly as much as they do, and they can walk or use public transit a lot more than they do. I’ve heard people from all over the world, no matter how good they publicly transit is, complain it’s not good enough and that’s why they drive a car, even though in a lot of those cases I know for a fact it’s good enough and plenty of people in similar situations use it.

      And that’s not even to mention how quick some people are to throw China or India under the bus for their total pollution, while ignoring the per capita numbers, or how a lot of their pollution comes from manufacturing things that are consumed by people in Europe and the USA.

      We choose to buy shit we don’t need, do choose things we don’t have to do, we actively choose to make the world a worse place, then talk about how it’s not our fault and it’s the companies who need to be stopped. But corporations are just people offering services to other people; you take one down and another will replace it; you make it illegal, and people will tear the government down and elect a new one. As long as people keep wanting the same things, then nothing changes.

  • senoro@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    Mfs be blaming the corporations when they are the ones using their money to tell the corporations what to do. Of you want corporations to stop destroying the environment, don’t buy products that were made via environmental destruction. Vote with your money, not with your memes.

    • rothaine@beehaw.org
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      11 months ago

      I tried buying socks made with only natural or eco-friendly materials.

      Fucking impossible. They all have at least a little bit of unfriendly material.

      So what am I to do? Not wear socks anymore?

      • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
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        11 months ago

        So at that point you said: I won’t try anymore? How about at least try wherever you can. That’s what people are saying. Not that you or anyone has to do everything 100 % perfect. That’s not possible and everybody knows that.

        • rothaine@beehaw.org
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          11 months ago

          No, I’m saying corporations run the show and “just don’t buy it” isn’t always a feasible solution.

    • DessertStorms@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      Unless you go live in a forest and grow your own food, your money will always end up in the hands of one of a dozen or two people.
      Pretending you can solve systemic problems with individual action is exactly the kind of lazy thinking you were taught to make sure you never threaten the system you’re nothing but a dispensable cog in.
      You’re not as clever or edgy as you think you are, you are literally licking the boot that is standing on your neck and think it’s a treat.

      • The_Terrible_Humbaba@slrpnk.net
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        11 months ago

        Unless you go live in a forest and grow your own food, your money will always end up in the hands of one of a dozen or two people.

        So let’s keep buying shit we don’t need? Using the straw example: You don’t need straws. They give a minor increase in convenience, while making the world a worse place. We don’t need them, but we buy them in mass making the world a worse place, then when some try to get rid of them we kick and scream because “it’s the corporation’s fault!”.

        You’re not as clever or edgy as you think you are, you are literally licking the boot that is standing on your neck and think it’s a treat.

        Someone’s saying “don’t give money to corporations” and “let’s not interact with the system”, and you’re saying that and calling them lazy, all as an excuse to keep giving money to corporations. Look in the fucking mirror. Literally your entire comment is an excuse to participate in the system you claim need to have problems with. Take some damn responsibility, and stop saying you want things to change while not being whiling to change your way of life. The one who’s lazy, is the one sitting at home making excuses to keep mindlessly consuming and saying other people need to find solutions and stop feeding your addiction - which they should, but that still doesn’t change the fact you have an addiction.

        I don’t feel like writing another whole comment about this, so I’ll just copy and paste something I wrote a while ago:


        When people say it’s not “we” and it’s just a few people, or just companies, it always seems to me that they are - consciously or subconsciously - just making excuses for not having to actually do anything and hoping someone else will solve the problem for them. They want the problem to be solved, while not having to do anything or change their lifestyle.

        There are some very obvious and clear examples of this; here’s two of them:

        • Studies have shown most people are in favour of carbon taxes. But with carbon taxes, companies would just shift the extra cost onto the consumers by increasing prices. One thing affected by carbon tax, would be the price of gas itself. And when prices (especially gas prices) increase, that usually results in a lot of anger and protests. So why would any democratically elected politician ever implement a carbon tax? If they did, they would be voted out, and the next one to come in would just undo it.

        • Another obvious example, is meat. We know one of the major protagonists in CO2 emissions is animal farming. Red meat especially is responsible for a huge source of those emissions. And yet most people don’t even wanna think about eating less meat, and they will still crack jokes about vegans and look at them sideways. And as for regulations regarding meat, the example from before still applies.

        As you seem to be implying, what really needs to happen is a whole cultural shift. Trying to shift blame onto to a few people and hope they get the guillotine, won’t change anything as long as people keep demanding all the same things because then someone else will come in to fulfil that demand. Whether we like it or not, we have to accept that it’s the sum of all our actions that will determine the future, and our actions can influence other people’s actions; therefore, one way or another, we are all responsible.

        • DessertStorms@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          The fact that you’re choosing plastic straws (that consist of 0.003% of plastics in the ocean and are literally a life line for many disabled people) as your hill to die on, while whining that systemic change will never happen (because making it happen would demand too much effort from you) shows me just how not only wilfully ignorant and lazy you really are, but also how ableist, and how you care more about patting yourself on the back than actually doing anything productive.

          But sure, keep licking that boot and blaming people who have no control over how things are run, I’m sure that’ll get you far.

          • The_Terrible_Humbaba@slrpnk.net
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            11 months ago

            The fact that you’re choosing plastic straws

            It’s just one example, and in this case one out of 3 that I gave. It’s also what the main post is about. But clearly you’re also too lazy to read the whole thing, which is why in the end you are repeating something I’ve already addressed, and your whole comment is ad-hominem with not a single argument presented.

            But sure thing, I’ll keep being “lazy” and “licking the boot” by actively making an effort to change my lifestyle, fight against the system and find alternatives, and trying to convince other people to do the same.

    • Che Banana@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      Hot take from someone who doesn’t understand corporate pricing strategies…

      (Hint: inflate sustainable practices so that they are priced out of the market)

      But yeah, supid eople blaming poor corporations…THINK OF THE SHAREHOLDERS!

      • senoro@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        Sustainable practises, especially energy generation are way cheaper than non renewable sources, so why would corporations try to make energy cost more for themselves? And it’s definitely cheaper to wash and reuse glass bottles than it is to fabricate entirely new disposable plastic ones. But the general public preferred not having to return their glass bottles for some change back and would rather have the convenience of the plastic bottle and aluminium can.

        Buildings use concrete because it’s cheap and strong, and people want to live in well built, sturdy and most importantly cheap buildings. Obviously, corporations could make their buildings out of more expensive sustainable materials and they don’t because publicly traded companies have a legal duty to make profit and clearly there is not enough of a push from the consumer to make the change to more sustainable buildings worth it.

        If you want to change companies you need to show them that with your money, and of course you can always vote for a representative who has environmental interests at heart and they can directly show companies what the consumer wants.

        But the truth is, not enough people care enough about the environment to prioritise choosing sustainable companies over consuming endless products.

        And you can blame companies for marketing useless or cheap products to the world, which will obviously cause consumers to want it (if the marketing is any good), and this time the main blame is on the government for not putting the environment first and not forcing adverts for unsustainable products to have warnings about their environmental impact. But the government is installed by people (in democracies) and the people clearly don’t care.

        Me and you might care, I suspect we both do care deeply. But not everyone cares, and that’s the problem.

        • Telemachus93@slrpnk.net
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          11 months ago

          Sustainable practises, especially energy generation are way cheaper than non renewable sources, so why would corporations try to make energy cost more for themselves?

          Sadly, that’s not the whole story. I don’t share all of his takes on how to move forward (he’s a tankie, I lean towards anarchism), but Second Thought summarized very well what the weak point in your argument about cost is: https://youtu.be/3gSzzuY1Yw0

          this time the main blame is on the government for not putting the environment first and not forcing adverts for unsustainable products to have warnings about their environmental impact. But the government is installed by people (in democracies) and the people clearly don’t care.

          Sadly, you’re also wrong here. For the USA it has been shown that the opinion of average citizens on proposals of individual policies has no significant impact on the probability of the policies being implemented. It is only the position of lobbyists that have an impact. Lobbyists also include environmentalist groups, of course, but more often than not corporate lobbyists all take similar stances whereas non-corporate groups are very often single-issue groups who only make themselves heard on relatively few occasions, making them less impactful overall. https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf

          I don’t know of a similar study for EU countries. My guess is that the multi-party systems here work in favor of more voices being heard but also against implementation of new actually useful policies because of the need for compromise and coalitions.

    • Paran@discuss.tchncs.de
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      11 months ago

      As always thw downvote machine is at work. If people would care as much, as they do when downvoting opinions that put up personal responsibility maybe the world would be a better place. But here we are.

    • donut4ever@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      How dare you say the truth, you bastard!!! Don’t you know how powerful memes are? Corporations are now shivering in a corner from the memes.