The climate change narrative insists that we are all doing something wrong. The results, they say, will be catastrophic for the planet. What we are doing wrong is: activities that put carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. That all of our private and public behaviors result in carbon dioxide emissions is pretty much true, but is carbon dioxide emission the worst thing the western consumer is doing environmentally speaking?
When is the last time you heard discussion of any other form of industrial pollution? The production of EV batteries is environmentally catastrophic. Most consumer electronics carry a similar pollution cost. While activists shout for us to stop using cars, disposable consumer products continue to dominate the market.
I’m not a fan of doomers, but I am concerned that we are covering up real ecological damage with the specter of climate change. Thoughts?
The ecological damage making the most impact was us trying to modernize the third world.
Did we every actually try to modernize the global south? Or did we just import foreign workers to suppress local wages while selling chinesium seconds to keep those who couldn't immigrate happy?
Yes. It's called "The Green Revolution". We basically pushed hard on chemical fertilizer farming. It massively increased food production and increased population sizes in the global south, making some places self-sustainable with food where they previously hadn't been capable of that.
Additionally, Africa is entering an industrial phase (both with and without help from the Chinese). The horrors of the 2nd Congo War were the result of western Leftists propagating socialism and Leftism among tribal conflicts, but Africa is starting to recover from the horrors of it's post-colonial period.