Claim: Personal sacrifices are not needed to address climate change.

Question

Rich people like Bill Gates, and the politicians they own like John Kerry, have a reassuring message for us all.  It's not necessary, they say, for everyone to change their lifestyles in order to fight climate change. We don't have to stop eating meat, or shopping, or driving to work every day. No one needs to stop flying around the world using their private jets, or taking luxury cruises on their million-dollar yachts. Why? Because capitalism can solve the climate crisis! Really? Yes!! (Well, no, not really. It's a fantasy being sold to us by billionaires who have no interest in real change.) ____________________________ Gates, who is estimated to be the fourth-richest person on Earth, said it was not realistic to expect that the climate crisis could be addressed by personal choices such as giving up eating meat. The notion that climate change is too big a problem to be solved by individual lifestyle decisions is commonly held by many, like Gates, who are working to address what they see as a crisis. Even John Kerry, President Biden's climate envoy, has signaled that new technology will need to be developed for the world to achieve emissions goals. “Fifty percent of the reductions we have to make to get to net zero by 2050 or 2045 are going to come from technologies that we don’t yet have,” Kerry told the BBC in 2021. Kerry singled out TerraPower, a company backed by Gates that is working on developing advanced nuclear fission reactors, as one hopeful example. “There are a lot of possibilities out there,” he said. “Bill Gates is pursuing a small, modular next-generation nuclear capacity. We’re going to find our way to zero emissions as fast as possible.” FULL STORY -- https://www.yahoo.com/news/bill-gates-climate-change-criticizes-impoverished-lifestyle-idea-200125212.html #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateAction #AntiCapitalism

Answer 1

This claim is false because there is significant evidence out there that indicates that reducing your personal carbon footprint can help with climate change. The article attached below indicates the ways that each person can reduce carbon footprint which overall will help with climate change.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/stories/climate-action/#:~:text=Reduce%20your%20energy%20use%2C%20and%20bills&text=Put%20on%20an%20extra%20layer,a%20water%2Defficient%20shower%20head.

Answer 2

This claim is most definitely false. There is plenty of scientific data proving that personal changes in reducing your carbon footprint can help reduce emissions which can help stop climate change. 

An article published by NASA states "The research shows reducing global emissions over the next 50 years to meet the goal of the Paris Agreement to keep global warming under 2°C through the end of the century would prevent about 4.5 million premature deaths, 1.4 million hospitalizations and emergency room visits, 300 million lost workdays, 1.7 million incidences of dementia, and 440 million tons of crop losses in the United States. Roughly two-thirds of those benefits would be realized even if only the United States reduced emissions." 

https://climate.nasa.gov/news/3134/reducing-emissions-to-lessen-climate-change-would-yield-dramatic-health-benefits-by-2030/

To help reduce emissions, you can change small things in your day to day life, such as driving less, flying less, eating less meat, eating local, wasting less food, recycling, turning lights off, wearing sustainably made clothes, and more. Most of these are not drastic personal measures. It can look as simple as eating meat only once a week instead of once a day. An article published by the New York Times goes further in depth on how to reduce your carbon footprint. 

https://www.nytimes.com/guides/year-of-living-better/how-to-reduce-your-carbon-footprint

Answer 3

     This claim of "Personal sacrifices are not needed to address climate change, is false. Although there any many big impacts that a normal citizens can't control, its up to us to begin the smaller impacts. We can't stop the thousands of harmful productions that is bringing our planet to climate change but we can do much smaller impacts to try and help it. Act Now begins their article with "Everyone can help limit climate change. From the way we travel, to the electricity we use, the food we eat, and the things we buy, we can make a difference." Act Now even mentions something as simple as "eat more vegetables" continuing on with, 'eating more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds, and less meet and dairy, can significantly lower your environmental impact."

     Overall there are many ways to slow climate change and it can start with us and personal sacrifices are needed when trying to save our earth. Those sacrifices may be small but they are there and they help.

https://www.un.org/en/actnow/ten-actions