Pretty embarrassing overall for the species.
The word just here hides a lot of complexity and difficult tradeoffs.
Even in the US only half the population will fly in any year and you can be sure it’s not the poorer half.
It’s not the rich half using public transport, they are only going to benefit from a transition away from private car ownership.
None of this is their fault, but ignoring it isn't good either.
All aircraft emissions are just 3% of US total. If all rich people (either the top 1% or 10%) reduced their emissions to zero tomorrow we would still not reach reduction targets needed to avoid catastrophic warming.
Everyone needs to contribute.
The numbers are what they are. Rich people have much greater obligation to reduce their emissions. They benefit most from economic activity and they cause the most emissions per capita.
If there were zero rich people tomorrow we would still have an emissions problem for the climate.
What about continuing to live at all? That is a decision people make every moment of the day and are not being held accountable for it at all.
If there were zero people tomorrow there would be still be an ongoing problem for the climate from the changes wreaked already.
There would be dramatic reforestation, algae growth, etc.
That might have caused some controversy, too, but is closer to what I meant. Your point is well taken, but maybe if I posted differently the ensuing discussion would have been less acrimonious.
Gargantuan slow ships are actually a great way to move stuff.
Yeah, the changes required are systemic and go from the top all the way to the bottom, and the things you mention are part of that process, but pricing people out of everything without offering an off-ramp is sadistic bullshit, and the only reason it's a thing is because rich people and stock prices have more representation in politics than the poor and the environment.
I don’t blame anyone for looking at radical solutions. We’re not putting out the fire by putting the wood back in a pile.
There’s obviously some need to experiment to see if we can find solutions, but historically our track record for engineering complex systems has not been great.
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/23/c...
In the US, the large natural emission of isoprene is why emission control for vehicles shifted to focus on NOx emission.
ricardobayes•7h ago