KDE should rather act then just "strike" (Re: Should KDE join the (Digital) Global Climate Strike this friday?)

[Nate Graham]

On 9/19/19 11:05 AM, Friedrich W. H. Kossebau wrote:
> More, I see all those "strikes" are substitutes for people actually handling
> or at least for postponing their own handling. Do you really need politicians
> to decide for you that you should look at what you consume and do and what
> harm it does to others, and then adopt things accordingly? Are you really all
> helpless victims of the bad evil system? Not responsible for the damage you
> create, because "politicians did not put a bin here, their fault that I drop
> my garbage on the ground"?

It's a common polluter tactic to get people to internalize the idea that 
each individual must take action on their own. And we should take 
individual action! But it is not enough, and it never will be.

I personally have spent over $50,000 in the last year to make my house 
carbon-negative through a combination of energy efficiency improvements, 
replacement of gas appliances with electric versions, and installation 
of a large solar array. I plan to buy an electric car in the next year 
or two so that my day-to-day personal fossil fuel consumption is zero. 
But still, it's not enough! These actions amount to a drop in the bucket 
despite having been accomplished at great personal cost. None of my 
neighbors have seen fit to do the same. And it does not offset the 
fossil fuel consumption of the plastic in the products I buy and their 
packaging, or the multiple international plane trips I now take to 
attend KDE events.

Generally there are no alternatives to polluting actions such as these. 
There is no electric train powered by renewably-generated electricity 
that I can take to cross the ocean. Almost always there is no 
alternative product made entirely of wood or metal, or wrapped in paper 
instead of plastic.

Only through collective action can a problem of this magnitude actually 
be addressed. We must imbue our organizations with our values so that 
the system itself tilts in the direction of fixing the problem 
automatically. Our own personal moral righteousness is not enough and 
never will be.


Nate