Post #3917983

2026-07-18 19:03 UTC

While we're playing hot potato with blame for a global situation so that everybody can enjoy their inaction in peace, take a moment to think of China. China is the world's biggest CO2 emitter. A massive nation of billions and the world's largest exporter of manufactured goods. How much direct blame do they have as they make virtually everything we buy, in factories specifically built to cater to our rampant consumerism? Western countries turned China's historic poor environmental and exploitative labour policies into a global manufacturing superpower that consumes massive amounts of energy. While I find it beyond galling that USian politicians would attempt to score points with our natural forests being on fire, it's because things are not so straight-forward. None are innocent, we're all to blame. Them probably more than most, sure, owning much of the global oil industry as they do. But our policies absolutely facilitate it. We sell the cheap guns, as it were. 2/3 #CdnPoli

Replies (1)

@zazzoo@mstdn.ca 2026-07-18 19:03

When water is ice, it doesn't just automatically melt when the temperature gets above 0c. It takes more to facilitate the state transition. Industry is like that. Because of capitalism, carbon needs to cost not just more than renewables, but a lot more. Hormuz did more to facilitate transition than anything, but was cruel. People die when countries are cut off from energy. You can't be blind to that. Transition needs to be planned, orderly: Policy. Plus, it's a fallacy that we'd ever not need oil - there are too many applications that can't be solved by cheap solar panels. It's the race to burn it as quickly as possible that needs to end. Nationalize it? Stop exports? Slow production to only domestic need? Ha, right. The US would invade us within a week. This is the story of Venezuela. But no, Carney, we certainly don't have to double down. US whining about smoke is pure political distraction intended for their domestic voters. But that doesn't mean we're completely innocent, either. 3/3 #CdnPoli

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