Katharine Hayhoe: “When people confess their green sins as if I were some eco-nun, I want to tell them they’re carrying the guilt of the oil + gas industry’s crimes. That the weight of our sickly planet is too much for any person to bear. And that that blame paves the road to apathy, which can really seal our doom.”

“When people confess their green sins as if I were some eco-nun, I want to tell them they’re carrying the guilt of the oil + gas industry’s crimes. That the weight of our sickly planet is too much for any person to bear. And that that blame paves the road to apathy, which can really seal our doom.”

“I work in the environmental movement. I don’t care if you recycle.”www.vox.com Stop obsessing over your environmental “sins.” Fight the oil and gas industry instead.

I didn't realize when I posted this that it was a subconscious response to reading this article a few hours earlier. Ha! bsky.app/profile/npr....

Books take a lot of resources to make. Digital readers do, too. What's the more sustainable option? The answer isn't straightforward.

What’s better for the climate: A paper book, or an e-reader?www.npr.org Books take a lot of resources to make. Digital readers do, too. What's the more sustainable option? The answer isn't straightforward.

On a semi-related note, I've heard that at some recent conference poster sessions, paper posters are no longer welcome - digital format only. Poster are displayed on several dozen large (~40 inch) televisions running for several hours. To me, this doesn't seem ideal.

As with books, I think it depends. Would the posters be printed on recycled material (and recycled)? Often not: the best quality ones are fabric. Are the TVs powered by renewable energy and are they used regularly for multiple conferences for several years, then recycled? Many decisions are not B&W.

My colleagues always print their posters on paper, but we're a small sample. I can't say if that's too common.

The best thing that could happen to North American forests is for someone to steal half the trees. There is a tree epidemic making our forests sick, fragile, and flammable. Go ahead - use paper products without guilt; we over-planted trees decades ago for industries that transitioned to plastics.

I live in logging country: can concur (make sure you're stealing the plantation conifers!)

"... the more we focus on individual action and neglect systemic change, the more we’re just sweeping leaves on a windy day. So while personal actions can be meaningful starting points, they can also be dangerous stopping points" 👍

Classic from Mary. Wish she were on this platform.

Recycling still goes to the same landfill but companies are going the extra mile to make sure it looks important (look at this shiny new Coke bottle it's 100% made of your old bottles, very sustainable /sarc)

Great advice. Focus on the problem: Fossil fuels. For more than half a century, big oil & gas has disinformed, distracted, and delayed on climate.

Personal Responsibility is all part of the Big Oil deflection plan. It made me so furious to discover that BP popularized the "Carbon Footprint" concept. And yet, I can't stop obsessing over my own practices.

Focus on the systemic

I like the eco-nun concept! And I agree that blaming each other or even ourselves for our eco-sins is not helpful.

💯%

Sister Eco Nun! Has a nice ring to it