They tricked us into taking all the blame for climate change, so we’re busting our ass off to reduce and they don’t even pretend to care. In truth we could do more for the environment with guillotines than paper straws
save the planet 🌎
Submitted 1 month ago by robocall@lemmy.world to [deleted]
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/8641ab5f-d721-4d63-a403-594d19e6729a.jpeg
Comments
But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world 1 month ago
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 month ago
They tricked us into taking all the blame for climate change
They tricked us into believing metric fucktons of single use plastics would keep us safe and healthy.
But we never had any direct control over climate policy, because we never had any direct control over the capital itself.
All we could do was blame ourselves.
TeddE@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Did they?
I can’t recall anyone ever being anything but nonplussed and skeptical about paper straws. From what I can tell, it was a product of a think tank that pushed into the news, which then caused businesses to treat that as though it were public demand and pushed it out to everyone, and most people shrugged, used the obviously inferior product (because it was free and the alternatives require attention), and then people got on with their day.
On the wider scale this was pitched as ‘the only thing you can personally do to combat climate change’ - but I suspect it is the literal strawman of a figurative progressive position, purposely pushing a manufactured defective solution as a means to distract and suppress more substantive change and organization thereof.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Metal straws are nice
sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
Just don’t trip
robocall@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Yeah, but I’m terrible about carrying them with me
bestboyfriendintheworld@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Start a cocaine or ketamine habit and you will always remember to have it on hand.
random_character_a@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Do they have to be 3 feet long novelty straws?
AA5B@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Metal straws are annoying to clean. You can’t just put them in the dishwasher, but have to use more water washing by hand and need to buy a specific tool just for that.
But why are we using straws at all? Just say no
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 month ago
some people’s necks don’t bend right. straws are a medical device
ThunderclapSasquatch@startrek.website 1 month ago
Because my teeth are going bad and straws help
Rusty@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Wheat stalk straws are surprisingly good. Don’t need to wash them like metal and silicone ones.
RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
Might get expensive to give one away with every drink
tempest@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Yeah the last time I drank a can of coke it was crazy expensive. Like an entire dollar or some shit.
i_dont_want_to@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
I love my metal straws. Great for smoothies and milkshakes. They don’t collapse!
debil@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Be the change you want to see in the world.
throws a Molotov at the next flying cruiser
Lyra_Lycan@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
Bruh if you souch as spit on said cruiser you’ll be wanted by the police for terrorism
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
BORTLES!
starkzarn@infosec.pub 1 month ago
The irony of using AI to make this image…
Humanity really is a lost cause
decipher_jeanne@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
Insane that people can’t tell this is a low effort Photoshop and think it’s AI.
Look it’s literally a picture of a cropped cruise ship overlapped with a plane. It’s 5min of Gimp
fuck_u_spez_in_particular@lemmy.world 1 month ago
You can see all kinds of typical AI artifacts
ImgurRefugee114@reddthat.com 1 month ago
Training is expensive. Inference probably cost less than the mushy straw.
NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 1 month ago
Do not patronize these systems, regardless of how small you think your individual impact might be. User counts are used to justify continued investments in these things.
explodicle@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Meanwhile billionaires create thousands of AI memes a day and you say nothing.
starkzarn@infosec.pub 1 month ago
Says who? I give all my billionaire best friends shit every day.
CircaV@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Oh totally. billionaires carbon footprint is many orders of magnitude larger than multiple lifetimes and generations of us normies. Abolish billionaires. Redistribute that wealth. The environmental future we want - NOW.
merc@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
And yet, there aren’t very many of them but there are billions of us.
Even if their lifestyles result in 1000x as much pollution, they only represent 0.00004% of the worldwide population, which is not enough to move the needle.
To put that in perspective, metro Tokyo has a population of approximately 38 million. If the fraction of billionaires in Tokyo matches the global ratio, there would be about 15 billionaires in Tokyo. Anything 15 people do in Tokyo will be just noise compared to what the other 37,999,985 people do.
Let’s just pretend that all 3000 of the world’s billionaires lived in the USA. They’d still only make up 0.001% of the entire US population. Even if they were flying around in personal jets, being followed by Airbus Beluga jets carrying their yachts, it would still pale in comparison to the sheer number of people currently suffering in economy class right now.
live air traffic showing the thousands of planes currently in the air over the US
I still think billionaires should be squashed by a hydraulic press, but I’m not kidding myself into thinking that doing that will have any impact on the environment at all. I support it more because they’re greedy assholes who are taking far more than their share, and who are using their immense wealth to distort the well functioning governing of the world.
carlossurf@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Fuck the billionaires that do that, but that doesn’t mean that me using a straw isnt still making the shit worse. At least I can sleep at night knowing I am not making the situation worse, and I will still try to vote for politicians that are fighting against the billionaires
TipsyMcGee@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
The normalization of needless single use products, like straws, by making it non plastic DOES make things worse. It delays real action, like removing straws altogether.
It’s greenwashing inherently unsustainable practices, just like introducing carbon capture technology on oil rigs or hyping electric cars as a way to keep the auto industry going (while suppressing more efficient means of transportation).
If we’re not going to fix shit, then why the fuck bother with mushy straws.
mad_lentil@lemmy.ca 5 weeks ago
Agree with this take. It’s like yeah electric cars are technically better, but any advantage they have over combustion engines is blown away by things like public transportation, or designing walkable/cyclable cities.
Our solutions can’t just rely on swapping out for “greener” tech. We need radical changes to how we are currently living in order to ensure a livable future.
There is no future that is not radical. This gradualist, neolib (let’s make sure all the investors get a chance to divest from dirty tech before switching!) fantasy will fuck us. It’s been fucking us for a hundred years. It’s time to try literally anything else.
Snowclone@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
It’s replacing real action in place of a good feeling. It’s THE plan to not do anything effective.
survirtual@lemmy.world 1 month ago
The straw you use does nothing but make you feel better, which I would argue is harmful. You shouldn’t feel better for doing nothing when such large problems exist.
Your use of the right straw is akin to you killing a single invasive ant in a rain forest, and saying you did your part to remove the invasive colony. You then spend every opportunity talking about how you killed that single ant, all while the ants have already multiplied and utterly nullified your non-effort contribution.
Shipping barges, data centers, gas and coal burning are all many orders of magnitudes greater problems than what straw you use. In addition, these are all growing in use. Talk about that. Put your attention and action towards that. Not even meat consumption compares to it, yet most talking is about how we should all suffer and do our part, with no talk about solving the real and growing problem.
uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
The non mushy straws aren’t terrible, but all rubberized tires are, whether on cars or bikes. The car ones are much worse.
And air travel is even worse still
But not close to industrial pollution which is exponentially greater.
The billionaires could care more and put some R&D into it. They just dont.
SoloCritical@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Nobody:
Larry Ellison: Buys an entire 90,000 acre Hawaiian Island just because
jawa22@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
Fixed:
Larry Ellison: Buys an entire 90,000 acre Hawaiian Island just because
mika_mika@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Nobody:
Absolutely no one:
OP: I’m going to use this meme format that is dumb for multiple reasons.
lemmy_outta_here@lemmy.world 1 month ago
That’s why the billionaires have decided to hoard all the wealth among a smaller and smaller proportion of the population. They’re trying to save the planet! When 10 people have everything and the rest are all dead - boom, planet saved.
TipsyMcGee@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 weeks ago
It’s not like ”they” held a meeting to decide they were going to get everything for themselves. Rather they’re embracing this inevitable ”feature” of the ongoing collapse of market economics.
Increasing the concentration of financial capital in the hands of a few people changes the value of that capital. For normal people, the dollar value is measured in the cost of food and living space. Billionaires, who despite evidence to the contrary, are human beings, don’t need or demand more of those real resources – say potatoes or tenancy in small rental apartments – than anyone else. In fact, they can in many cases make do with less! They prefer to subside on lobster, filet mignon or whatever fad diet their longevity coach prescribes, and live in lavish palaces and/or bunkers.
Billionaires, and even down to the measly top 10 percent of earners, are the ultimate hedge when things go sideways in the real economy. They allow governments to keep printing money by diverting a tidy sum of it from potatoes and apartment leases to the lobster, filet mignon, yacht and private jet economy – and more importantly, their investment portfolios.
My point being, that malevolence isn’t the main driver here, but a widespread failure of people to acknowledge that the fantasy of limitless growth inevitably must be realized within the confines of the fantasy world of the financial economy by insulating it from the real economy. Because in the latter we eventually have to accept that we have reached the highest amount of potatoes and apartments possible. This failure is on everyone, not just billionaires.
At this point, though, I guess ”they” (Peter Thiel et al) have pretty much decided to help this collapse along with the help of every major government. So I guess you’re right.
lemmy_outta_here@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
I get what you’re saying and it is probably true from a macro standpoint, but don’t be too hasty to minimize the role of malevolence. If a rich person were so inclined, they could read the same articles and books as me and conclude that systemic problems are already pervasive and still growing. They could then withdraw their support for politicians like Trump (or even most democrats, to be fair) who do anything and everything to amplify those problems for the simple reason that rich people stand to gain from them. I am so furious with people like Thiel because i think they DO know what they’re doing, but they care more about the gains than the people they hurt.
robocall@lemmy.world 1 month ago
But who will clean the cruise ship jets for them?!
ebolapie@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Robots, probably. ChatGPT will figure it out, probably.
HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 5 weeks ago
Out of Elon’s 35 or so kids, some will have been Bokanovskied into Epsilon Pluses, just enough to push a broom.
Krudler@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Always remember that coke and pepsi do not use recycled plastic in their coke or pepsi packaging, yet they are outwardly huge proponents of recycling the waste they create
Noodle07@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Me switching to European cans of cola :3
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 4 weeks ago
huh? PET bottles are like, the single most recycled thing after asphalt, i think
saigot@lemmy.ca 5 weeks ago
I despise how sprite changed to clear bottles claiming environmental reasons, when that reason was that they wanted to be less indentifiable in trash heaps and microplastic samples.
HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 5 weeks ago
They’re not doing it out of spite, most plastics can’t be recycled, not the way aluminum can (ha).
altphoto@lemmy.today 1 month ago
Those ships are powered by baby chickens.
First they load up the tanks full of baby chickens. The chicks travel into a conveyor belt where a long row of old women pick up the chicks to if they are male or female. The females are grown to make more eggs. The males are tossed into the intake. The males are then mixed with air and tar and then injected into the piston at high pressure. Once top dead center is reached, a spark drivers the pressures to hundreds of PSI and as much as 800 C. The chicks have been known to survive up to that moment.
If they can perfect chick injection they will try more compact fuels like puppies, crocks, whales, baby elephants, the homeless and or orphans. They might end up stuck with birds so they might try just eagles. There are enough of each eagle to push the boats a good two or three miles!
MadPsyentist@lemmy.nz 1 month ago
Someone has just watched Baraka! Good choice of movie my friend!
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 1 month ago
I never had any issues with paper straws. Is it a skill issue?
tempest@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Same.
The people I’ve noticed complain seem to buy giant drinks and let them sit around for a while.
Never been a fan of flat warm soft drinks myself.
Sybilvane@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
I’ve definitely noticed paper straws come in different qualities, and are affected differently depending on what you’re drinking. But the ones that turn mushy were largely phased out of use because I’m sure a lot of people complained. I haven’t had a mushy straw in years.
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 4 weeks ago
my sneaking suspicion is that a lot of people are getting fast food in their car, they put the soda in the cup holder and put the straw in right away, and slowly sip on it for like a full hour and by the end of that it’s obviously going to become part of the drink…
HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Look, if living in a densified treeless hellscape of concrete towers that all look the same, filled with 350 sq. ft. windowless suites furnished with sawdust furniture, that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make for the ruling class to continue living well.
surph_ninja@lemmy.world 1 month ago
We need the international court to set hard caps that will result in prison time.
PumpkinSkink@lemmy.world 1 month ago
if we reduced wealth inequality to the point noone could afford that kind of shit i bet we could ride the plastic straw wave for a few centuries before it really came back to bite us.
stupidcasey@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I gotta be honest, I would personally insert a straw into the nose of every baby seal on earth for a flying cruise ship.
barnaclebutt@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Test
beejboytyson@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Ah Blane we meet again
betanumerus@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
The billionaires aren’t the ones teaching you about how the planet works. In fact how rich as person is has nothing to do with it.
If you want to understand how the planet works, learn it from planet experts.
devolution@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Not big enough. Fail.
WereCat@lemmy.world 1 month ago
When you need to ship a cargo
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 4 weeks ago
okay so like, do you people posting this stuff actually think about it for even a second? or do you just not realize that physical plastic material ending up on the ground is a different thing than air pollution?
yoyu can’t compare the two, they’re completely different things, even if everyone stopped using fossil fuels it would still be exactly as bad to use plastic straws.
nuggie_ss@lemmings.world 1 month ago
I’m curious as to why you’re using a straw at all.
is it that because you’re at a restaurant?
You should know that by giving most restaurants your patronage, you are contributing to a lifestyle that we all cannot participate in.
primrosepathspeedrun@anarchist.nexus 1 month ago
While this scum is allowed allocate all of the world’s resources; every drop of water you conserve goes to their data centers and pleasure fleets.
There is no conservation until they’re gone. It simply cannot be done.
alekwithak@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I mean yes, but it’s not like they use an extra drop for every drop conserved, it’s still okay to not be wasteful.
primrosepathspeedrun@anarchist.nexus 1 month ago
It almost literally is. Maybe not responsive at the scale of drops.
No. Fuck that. If the recycling bin still goes straight to the dump, don’t ask me to separate that shit out. It’s kind of offensive.
I would probably take weird ascetic joy in min/maxing my resource use, but I won’t save shit fot billionaires to abuse. Fuck that and you. Smoke em while you got em
judgyweevil@feddit.it 1 month ago
Companies 3 years ago: helping the emvironment is part of our core values
The same companies one day later: start to heavily use and train AI
0x0@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
By the way, back to commuting to/from the office, people!
DmMacniel@feddit.org 1 month ago
That was always just green washing bullshit.
iAvicenna@lemmy.world 1 month ago
you are beint generous. They are more like
“Under enlightened Trump’s benevolent leadership we have realized that environmental concerns, inclusivity, modern medicine and claims of political misinformation are all woke scams. Therefore effective immediately we are ditching all our efforts in these directions.”
AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today 1 month ago
Amazon bought an entire arena and named it “climate pledge arena”. You can’t make this shit up