Great article, except for the assertion that smoking is "purely harmful." Smoking is an extremely enjoyable behavior for many people, you just don't like it.
I understand that the point might seem pedantic but I think it's important. Dismissiving other people's priorities because they don't align with your own is actually a cornerstone of e.g. degrowth thinking.
We have to get out of this habit. You don't need to endorse smoking, but don't pretend there isn't real positive utility alongside the obvious personal and social costs.
Thanks for commenting, and no judgment on people who smoke. The implied qualifier, which I maybe should have made explicit, is "medically". A doctor is on firm scientific footing saying that smoking is medically harmful and stopping would improve your health (again, I don't mean that as personal judgment against smokers; I don't smoke but I do other things, like eating too much sugar, that a doctor would also accurately say isn't good for me). But a climate scientist is *not* on firm scientific footing saying that fossil fuels are purely harmful and lives and livelihoods would improve if we immediately stopped burning them. That is the contrast I was trying to point out.
Understood and my comment comes across a bit harsher than I intended.
I just think these distinctions matter. A lot of people will casually tell you that SUVs or air conditioning have no social utility so there's no downside in restricting them. It's just not a good habit to get into.
Ya, I share your apprehension about slippery slopes when the state starts micromanaging people's lives. Freedom is a central American ideal. That said, a lot of the specific discussions of these types of things are imprecise. Air conditioning, for instance, does an enormous amount of measurable good! It's probably the main reason heat waves are much deadlier in Europe than they are here. I get why some people get annoyed by huge SUVs in the middle of large cities, but there are also clear reasons someone might need one, beyond their personal taste or enjoyment. My wife and I try to reduce our household emissions, but we drive an SUV (hybrid) because we have kids and we live in a semi-rural mountain town with a real winter. Sometimes driving our smaller city car in the winter is dangerous! I do see the argument for indoor smoking restrictions, but only because indoor smoking harms other people, not because I think people who smoke shouldn't have the right to weigh their own choices.
Great article, except for the assertion that smoking is "purely harmful." Smoking is an extremely enjoyable behavior for many people, you just don't like it.
I understand that the point might seem pedantic but I think it's important. Dismissiving other people's priorities because they don't align with your own is actually a cornerstone of e.g. degrowth thinking.
We have to get out of this habit. You don't need to endorse smoking, but don't pretend there isn't real positive utility alongside the obvious personal and social costs.
Thanks for commenting, and no judgment on people who smoke. The implied qualifier, which I maybe should have made explicit, is "medically". A doctor is on firm scientific footing saying that smoking is medically harmful and stopping would improve your health (again, I don't mean that as personal judgment against smokers; I don't smoke but I do other things, like eating too much sugar, that a doctor would also accurately say isn't good for me). But a climate scientist is *not* on firm scientific footing saying that fossil fuels are purely harmful and lives and livelihoods would improve if we immediately stopped burning them. That is the contrast I was trying to point out.
Understood and my comment comes across a bit harsher than I intended.
I just think these distinctions matter. A lot of people will casually tell you that SUVs or air conditioning have no social utility so there's no downside in restricting them. It's just not a good habit to get into.
Ya, I share your apprehension about slippery slopes when the state starts micromanaging people's lives. Freedom is a central American ideal. That said, a lot of the specific discussions of these types of things are imprecise. Air conditioning, for instance, does an enormous amount of measurable good! It's probably the main reason heat waves are much deadlier in Europe than they are here. I get why some people get annoyed by huge SUVs in the middle of large cities, but there are also clear reasons someone might need one, beyond their personal taste or enjoyment. My wife and I try to reduce our household emissions, but we drive an SUV (hybrid) because we have kids and we live in a semi-rural mountain town with a real winter. Sometimes driving our smaller city car in the winter is dangerous! I do see the argument for indoor smoking restrictions, but only because indoor smoking harms other people, not because I think people who smoke shouldn't have the right to weigh their own choices.
By "specific discussions are imprecise", I mean public ones, not your comment, to he clear.