Shifting responsibility to consumers minimises the role of energy industry and policymakers, University of Sydney research suggests

Electricity generation is responsible for close to half of Australia’s emissions, based on 2021 International Energy Agency estimates, with transport and industry also major emitters.

In the context of the energy market, Van Laer said, storytelling should emphasise the role of companies and governments alongside individuals.

“At the moment, it’s not presented that way,” he said.

“It’s like ‘you, consumer, you can do this on your own and then we [companies] will fall in line.”

  • kitnaht@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    I’ve been yelling this at the top of my lungs forever. No amount of cardboard straws are going to stop corporations from polluting the fuck out of things.

    • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
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      9 hours ago

      Yeah, I absolutely agree with this sentiment. The whole plastic mess really grinds my gears.

      The straw thing is classic “industry reference group consultation” stuff. Regulators asked the companies that manufacture stuff wrapped in plastic what they should do, and they said “no more shopping bags!” and “cardboard straws!”, and now consumers feel like they’ve endured some hardship and solved the plastic problem. Meanwhile the assholes can keep selling everything wrapped in plastic because that’s the cheapest way to sell it.

      About a year ago I noticed plastic products at the shop like wraps and bin bags with “50% ocean plastic” or some such. They define ocean plastic as plastic collected from communities within 100km of the ocean which have no other plastic reclamation facilities. In Australia 99.99% of the population lives within 100km of the ocean. City Councils pay companies to process waste. If you take the plastic from those companies then it meets their shitty definition of “ocean plastic”. So in summary, they’re not saving any dolphins, but using the plight of the dolphins to sell more plastic. Assholes.

      Regulators need to regulate these cunts. Add a levy to any product that includes plastic. Start at 1% and increase by 1% each year forever. I have absolutely no doubt that within just a few years your local supermarket will be awash with products enclosed in amazing polymers comprised of frog spit and corn starch that were invented 80 years ago.

      • houseofleft@slrpnk.net
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        8 hours ago

        Agree a gazzillion percent!! On the plastic front, there’s some progress being made towards a UN plastics treaty which would legally bind countries to legal targets for plastic reduction. It’s not perfect at all, and it’s likely the US under Trump will ignore it, but would be a big win for plastic regulation (Green Peace and a bunch of other groups are campaining for its support- worth searching for local petitions if you’re interested)

    • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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      11 hours ago

      That’s a psyop…

      If you really care that much about straws, just don’t fucking use them… JFC

      Amazing how capiatlist parasite never suggests less consumption but instead offers idiotic solutions to the problems it made up lol

      • kitnaht@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        Straws was just an example, how do you manage to take that out of context, get it wrong, make up some pretend scenario and then get offended by your incorrect assumption? Yeesh.

        The point I’m making is that this whole “YOU can save the environment!” shenanigans, is an effort to shift blame from corporations who refuse to change, onto the customers who don’t control shit anyways.