Hi Pieter,
It's always valid to think of ways and suggestions to make improvements because things are definitely not ideal now. My personal skepticism wasn't aimed so much at making improvements but at questioning the solutions that are being fed to us, and questioning whether some of these issues are a problem really that needs a solution.
The current "flavour of the week" solutions in popular circulation and which the media promote endlessly and which so many people seem to believe in has me very unconvinced because many of them seem unworkable, poorly thought through or simply scams to achieve end results for the people who promote them that we are being kept unaware of. Not every person with power, money and influence wants to make your life better. Some of these people are evil.
Those are my views, others obviously have different ideas about these things.
If I were you I wouldn't lose sleep about upsetting a few forum members by asking questions or debating possibilities. There are too many people today who become hysterical and offended when their ideologies and cults are not worshipped. This has to end because they are creating a Dark Ages kind of society where there is only (according to them) one truth, one answer, one *science (*that has little to do with real science). That's not a world any sane person wants to live in.
To get back to your questions, it's a very complex topic. The solutions put forward by the media, celebrities, child prophets and extremely wealthy and well funded "green" organizations mostly do not work in my opinion. I suspect the only solution that will be effective - and this will be upsetting to some people to hear - is population reduction.
In short
- Population reduction
- More efficient use of resources, less waste
- Better efforts at recycling
- Clamping down on highly destructive and polluting activities everywhere, including in the food chain where processed foods are laced with additives that are unhealthy
My personal view is that a transition from fossil fuel and the petro-chemical industry to "green" is a fantasy. It is a complete and utter impossibility unless people are going to give up their current lifestyles and live off the land as it was done in the era before mass industrialisation, electrification and migrations to the cities. Not a single person on this forum will do that, even if they claim otherwise. Even if they did (personally), it would not solve the overall problem because the rest of the world are not going to copy what they are doing.
On top of that, if you look at my efforts to reduce my usage of fossil fuels, most of these have an immediate, personal benefit: either financial benefits (not owning a car, turning down the heat, eating less meat, being mindful about my electricity usage, buying less goods, using second-hand products, repairing stuff, eating more seasonal and local foods, ...), health benefits (using my bike instead of a car or bus, eating less meat) or both, so most of my efforts are not about giving up something.
In European cities we often have the possibility to get along without a car. US cities are usually not well served by public transport and populations often live in suburbs, far away from centres of commerce. The way society is arranged in the US, most people will be lost without a car. It's unfortunate and it's extremely wasteful but that is the current reality.
Outside of cities and depending on the country and society one lives in, a car may be essential.
I think some of your ideas to be less wasteful are great but I would be very careful about believing the media, government, Klaus and Greta about eating less meat and messing with your diet in other ways. This is a terrible idea imo. My advice (my personal opinion) would be to eat as naturally as you can (meat, dairy, fruit, vegetables, wheat etc) and to not listen to propaganda from dangerous people about what medicines you must take in your life and what you must do with your diet.
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