What you want, as someone taking action against climate change, is … to be applying pressure somewhere it will have an effect. I want to say “leverage”, but I’m not sure that’s the right concept—let me give an example: funding renewable energy sources that are on a steep segment of their learning curve. The fact that I did this makes the next person who does this’s action more effective.
I think this article mostly implies, rather than flat out states, that there is a coordination problem here, which means, in approximate order:
a) political action
b) if you’re taking personal action (what you buy, who you work for, …) you want to be pushing down a steep and oiled learning curve for maximum effect
I think a lot of activist discourse about climate avoids talking about coordination simply because of the likelihood that the reader feels powerless and becomes apathetic. (“Don’t go over there, you’ll fall into the despair event horizon!”)
Ya, well said. Here’s an idea for an initiative to improve coordination: educate voters that market forces work in everyone’s interest when economic policy internalizes externalities.
What you want, as someone taking action against climate change, is … to be applying pressure somewhere it will have an effect. I want to say “leverage”, but I’m not sure that’s the right concept—let me give an example: funding renewable energy sources that are on a steep segment of their learning curve. The fact that I did this makes the next person who does this’s action more effective.
I think this article mostly implies, rather than flat out states, that there is a coordination problem here, which means, in approximate order: a) political action b) if you’re taking personal action (what you buy, who you work for, …) you want to be pushing down a steep and oiled learning curve for maximum effect
I think a lot of activist discourse about climate avoids talking about coordination simply because of the likelihood that the reader feels powerless and becomes apathetic. (“Don’t go over there, you’ll fall into the despair event horizon!”)
Ya, well said. Here’s an idea for an initiative to improve coordination: educate voters that market forces work in everyone’s interest when economic policy internalizes externalities.
Politics and policy more often than now works to internalize rewards and externalize cost for a relevant block or special interest.
“Civilization is in a race between education and catastrophe” — H. G. Wells