Climate change – your big easy wins?

We had a thread for small wins recently but what are the big easy wins you’d make to save the planet?

Inspired by Brian Niccol, who’s just been appointed as the new CEO of Starbucks. He refused to relocate, so instead he’s commuting 1000 miles, 3 times a week by private jet…something like 8000 KG of CO2 released into the atmosphere per day.

But, he also was previously the CEO of Chipotle, he refused to relocate then also, so instead they moved their entire headquarters and staff to be near to him.

So my first easy win is to ban Brian Niccol.

Failing that, ban private jets. Over to you.

Don’t fly.

Personally? I’m vegetarian. Big win, at no cost whatsoever to me.

Globally, a carbon rationing scheme.

Unrelated, but how does one get a job as a CEO? It sounds like a dream to be fair.

Haven’t flown in 30 years. Don’t really want to.

Vegan, nice food, home cooked. This is what I like to eat.

Cycle as much as I can for utility reasons often little slower than a car more fun whats not to like.

All uk holidays.

None of this was different to what I normally do.

Globally.

1. Tidal power.

2. Algae-based bioreactors to scrub CO2 out of the atmosphere.

I’d have those down as two of the ‘easier’ ones.

FFS.

Globally, a carbon rationing scheme.

Hardly easy!

Just stop gardening. For at least some of your land. Maintain it for sure, but abandon “garden”.

Cycle.

Unrelated, but how does one get a job as a CEO? It sounds like a dream to be fair.

Be a CEO type person.

I’m waiting for the thread to fill with ideas which have minimal adverse effects on the poster, but massive ones on other people.

Plant trees, lots and lots of trees.

Forest are a massive carbon sink, they also help regulate climate and stop desertification in marginal regions.

No kids, according to that other thread they’re all assholes anyway.

Don’t cut trees, accept that they drop leaves and cause shade but on a hot day anavenue of mature trees is a cool oasis.

Never driving my bike somewhere in a car to go for a ride.

Solar power (local and grid), wind power, battery and other storage, heat pumps, EVs.

These will be big wins, eventually, but it will take some time. It may not be quick enough, though. The reason they are easy wins is that they don’t require large scale societal or political change, they can be (and are being) done now, the people that want to make money still make money and end users save money.

It is not likely to be enough, and we DO need large scale societal and political change, but that’s not an easy win, it’s a long hard slog if it’s achievable at all.

Be a CEO type person.

Or a psychopath in other words

Make WFH a compulsory part of every contract where it is physically possible. Make the infrastructure needed to make it feasible cheap and easily available.

If your dickheads in the C suite whine, chuck them out of their private jet at 30000 feet.

Easy way to increase the savings.

Stop everyone in the world from using fossil fuels.

Change all of your pension investments to the most ethical / sustainable your provide offers.

Takes 10 minutes. As championed by Richard Curtis (yes Love Actually Richard Curtis)

https://makemymoneymatter.co.uk/

Cycle & walk more.

Go veggie.

Insulate your house more.

Invest your pension and savings in sustainable & ethical funds.

Lobby our government for more sustainable energy generation, network and storage. Particularly research into new tech, including tidal.

The trouble with a lot of these ‘ethical’ investments is they don’t invest in arms manufacturing. A lot of weapons makers found it difficult to raise money by issuing new stock when looking to increase production in light of events in Ukraine.

No kids, according to that other thread they’re all assholes anyway.

Best comment yet

Globally.

1. Tidal power.

2. Algae-based bioreactors to scrub CO2 out of the atmosphere.

These are the only 2 ideas yet that are even close to big enough. It’s a travesty that the U.K. is wasting some of the best sites in the world to exploit tidal power.

You going to have to get alot of people riding an awful lot of miles to offset global shipping and big industry all of which will be required to make the bikes you need in the first place

I’m waiting for the thread to fill with ideas which have minimal adverse effects on the poster, but massive ones on other people.

Having to be one of those people who cry “BUT WHAT ABOUT BACON” at vegetarians isn’t a real hardship though is it? Admit it, you quite enjoy it really.

None of this was different to what I normally do.

Here lies the problem. You havent actually made these descisions for environmental reasons. they just happen to suit your lifestyle.

I could get on my high horse about not having kids. But lets be honest, thats not the reason I dont have any. Its because I’m physically, emotionally and financially unwilling ot commit to something that sounds horrible.

[to be clear, I don’t hate all kids, I probably don’t hate your kids, I don’t hate the idea of reproduction; I hate the idea of me, personally, being a parent]

Make WFH a compulsory part of every contract where it is physically possible.

I’ve been banging on about this for years. Perhaps not compulsory, but maybe a punitive tax regime that heavily penalises people being in the office. We have to pay to come in when it’s not really needed, so make the CEOs pay instead.

It’s a travesty that the U.K. is wasting some of the best sites in the world to exploit tidal power.

The problem is they are also some of the best sites in the area for wildlife.

I’ve been banging on about this for years. Perhaps not compulsory, but maybe a punitive tax regime that heavily penalises people being in the office. We have to pay to come in when it’s not really needed, so make the CEOs pay instead.

I’m torn on this.

1) It’s primarily a middle class thing and would turn commuting (and therefore fuel duty and other commuting costs) into a regressive tax.

2)  Some people really don’t work well from home. Half my team I’d happily let WFH all the time except when needed in the office.  Others I’d make come in every day if HR let me. And it’s a strong negative correlation between those that want to WFH and those I’d want in the office ?

But ….

It was better over lockdown. Seemed like when everyone was at home we all worked better from home. Probably because there wasn’t that disparity between being able to work with those in the office and forget those not. I’d just have my headset on 75% of the time chatting whilst working.

So my first easy win is to ban Brian Niccol.

Failing that, ban private jets.

Banning someone or something might be a big win, but its not an easy one as Private Jet owners and Captains of Multinational Corporations can afford lots of expensive lawyers, have governments in the pockets and so on. Easy to say, not so easy to do.

Tampering with Private Jets though – thats easy. And a 2 for 1.

Another big win: end the current wars and fighting.

Turn off the internet

Stop flying

Don’t have children

Go veggie (vegan even better)

Don’t go on cruises

Try and buy goods that haven’t been shipped around the world

Try and avoid foods with palm oil

These are my attempts and admittedly a small drop in the increasing ocean size.

I’ve been banging on about this for years. Perhaps not compulsory, but maybe a punitive tax regime that heavily penalises people being in the office. We have to pay to come in when it’s not really needed, so make the CEOs pay instead.

Are CEOs going to pay for the travel, or should they pay for  everyone to have suitable homes to work from as well? Do we have to wait until allthose suitable homes have been built?

You could also flip that around – why travel at all. If you work somewhere whats the reason for not also living there?

I’ve been banging on about this for years. Perhaps not compulsory, but maybe a punitive tax regime that heavily penalises people being in the office. We have to pay to come in when it’s not really needed, so make the CEOs pay instead.

And probably pay a lot more financially to fix the lack of productivity and mental health issues which follow.

One car per household.

Flying tax above “x” number of miles per year per individual, taking account of miles per year on cruise ship.

Cruise tax above “x” number of miles, taking account of miles flown in same year.

I’d enter us into some kind of economic partnership with mainland Europe that allowed tariff and customs free trading whilst increasing tariffs for goods from China etc. to allow local manufacturing to become more competitive and minimise the amount of ships burning horrendous fuels travelling half way across the globe.

Ermmm, do vegan and vegetarian foods use a different transport method to get to the supermarkets I’m not aware of, or do they arrive on the back of the same big effing juggernaut that my steak does??

😉

Going veggie is great until you look where all the fruit and veg comes from in the supermarkets!

They may have British flags above the produce displays but hardly any of it is British.

Introduce that thing they did in Logan’s Run or mandatory death for anyone whose bank balance hits a billion. Obscene amounts of money seems to correlate with very high emissions oh and being an absolute shit of a human being.

Veggie I can get behind but not vegan. Leather is, in my opinion, the best material for footwear. The alternatives are all a bit crap.

You guys realise the thread title is big easy wins, right? Not random pie in the sky ideas?