12 votes

How to Actually Personally Fight Climate Change

3 comments

  1. vord
    (edited )
    Link
    It's mostly good advice, but I had some thoughts while reading: Carbon credits/offsets/taxes are mostly bullshit feel-good schemes that just help justify the status quo. Insulating old houses is a...

    It's mostly good advice, but I had some thoughts while reading:

    • Carbon credits/offsets/taxes are mostly bullshit feel-good schemes that just help justify the status quo.
    • Insulating old houses is a big problem.
    • Natural Gas def needs to be phased out, but only after oil is. Reducing demand for natural gas without reducing drilling will just result in more of it being burned/released at the drill site instead of captured.

    Since I know my first thought will be heavily argued, I think the correct answer in place of these things is fuel rationing, and it can be phased in rapidly:

    • Issue crude oil barrel tokens in accordance with the country's total usage (~7.5 billion tokens worth 1 barrel of crude)
    • Divide these tokens equally across all adult US citizens (~270 million adults, ~27.8 tokens per person)
    • Establish a marketplace to purchase other people's excess fuel tokens.
    • Reduce tokens issued by 5-10% annually.

    This enforces that drilling actually gets slowed over time, acts as an income redistribution mechanism, and doubles as an incentive to "go green" faster.

    3 votes
  2. [2]
    userexec
    Link
    Does anyone actually buy Renewable Energy Certificates for residential use? I had never heard of this being a possibility, and with just some poking around it doesn't look like the places selling...

    Does anyone actually buy Renewable Energy Certificates for residential use? I had never heard of this being a possibility, and with just some poking around it doesn't look like the places selling them are considering drive-by REC purchases from residential customers either. It just struck me as an odd suggestion to be bundled in, but maybe it's common in places where utility companies support it?

    2 votes
    1. rkcr
      Link Parent
      I don't get a certificate, but I pay extra to my utility to use renewable energy instead of fossil fuels.

      I don't get a certificate, but I pay extra to my utility to use renewable energy instead of fossil fuels.

      2 votes