Consumer vs Corporate Climate Blame

Ah yes, what's better than trying to shift the blame from the actual people and groups doing this, to individuals, who often don't even know better? No need to address the companies or (dare I say) suggest regulations. It's the consumer who should think about this, he's the center of the market universe - besides 7 billion other centers - and only he - with the coincidental cooperation of all other 7 billion people - can change this. How? Why by consuming... ethically. Then t

This is a cop out that capitalism LOVES. It relinquishes the individual of any blame and encourages more consumption.We need to consume less and vote for climate policy. This begins with the individual.Those companies only get away with it because of our complacency. Your logic encourages that complacency and corporations LOVE that. They're happy to take the blame because they know people will still buy their product.It starts with the individual. Nothing changes until the individu

If I see the behavior of rich individuals as well as companies (large and small, rich and poor), it does seem to me as though we need to work on both sides. Implying that personal responsibility is zero... we're eight billion people and about a billion of those are rich. That includes the vast majority of the people reading this (as well as myself—I'm writing this comment from a train which I chose over going by car today for environmental reasons). Can we really say that we are not to

On the other hand, there’s a dangerous belief that emissions are something corporations do for their own greedy purposes; if they can be curtailed, ordinary people could go about their lives in peace. This is backwards. It is consumer preferences - to drive an SUV to a detached house in suburbia, to fly home for Thanksgiving, to eat meat, etc. which inherently require massive amounts of energy. Polluting corporations happen to be the mechanism for fulfilling these demands under capitalism. If we

I agree completely.We are all responsible as consumers, in every country.People like to blame the western world or "corporations" - no, it is your (our) fault as individuals. Corporations only emit when consumers demand their product/service.We are all humans: anyone who can help make the future better, should.

I imagine this is being downvoted because it suggests consumers need to change their behavior. As the Reddit hive mind knows: corporations produce the vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions. But at the end of nearly all those supply chains are consumers, without which the enterprise would not exist.Ultimately it is Moloch [0] who drives us here.[0]: ht

You're employing a fallacy that corporations are only too happy to indulge, shifting the blame to consumers. Whereas the vast majority of power consumption (and pollution) is caused by big industries.

I don't buy it completely.It's like when I read arguments such as "Aramco most polluting company in the planet by CO2" or "eating a burger pollutes more than driving an SUV for 100 miles"...Apple, Aramco, your local butcher are merely serving your needs. Aramco ain't forcing you to buy 5L V8 trucks, and you're butcher ain't forcing you to eat beef rather than poultry or vegetables.Apple releasing new products is just a normal tech company ser

> Corporations are responsible for something like 70% of global emissions.Corporations produce goods and services that people consume. I think it is intellectually lazy to attribute all the blame of pollution to the producer side of the economic relationship rather than the consumer side. The people consuming the polluting goods and services usually derive most of the economic benefits, the producers and people along the value chain capture some value, and everyone not involved in the tran

This article makes out like the companies themselves are directly responsible, rather than the customers of these companies, i.e. you and me. We cause these companies to pollute by creating a market demand for their products or services. Not to say there's not things a company can do to improve it's efficiency, but ultimately, a company isn't going to keep their factories firing away if no one is buying their stuff.The same argument can be applied when people look at China and