this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2026
465 points (97.5% liked)
Technology
88072 readers
3715 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
And now that I know you can't read...
I have literally said we all do need to cut our emissions
Except one thing is a fact. Americans HAVE been cutting emissions, for 20 years now. US carbon emissions peaked in 2006. Current US emissions are at the lowest level they have been in 38 years.
China is STILL INCREASING emissions.
China has a centrally planned single party economy. They have one government that makes these choices, and they have been and are consciously choosing to pursue emissions heavy power and manufacturing to secure economic dominance. It's extremely relevant here.
India has more people and 1/4 the emissions of China. Though they are also increasing.
Buddy, if you spend a couple seconds thinking about my question, you might notice that "We all do need to cut our emissions" is not an answer. I'll try to put it in more explicit terms, try not knee-jerk-reacting this time:
Why should a person in China stop increasing their emissions to make profits, while so many people in America make so much profit/save money by emitting so much more on average?
You're acting like this question obviously has a definitive answer, but it doesn't!
Look, it's totally fine to criticize China's rising emissions on their own. But it's really, really dumb to contrast their total with total US emissions - especially when you don't mention anything about how many emissions are caused to supply the west with stuff. It's great that US emissions are going down, but they're still way too high because they provide cover for other nations to save money by using fossil fuels just a bit longer. Why are other countries morally wrong in climbing towards the level of America, as long as they stay below?