Tommy Siegel | Bluesky | website
Transcript
Comic in 4 Panels:
Header: It’s That Easy!
Panel 1: The year is 1994. A dad with short black hair, in a blue shirt, red shorts, and white sneakers with calf high white socks, kneels with one arm resting on a knee and the other raised demonstratingly in front of a kid in a green ball cap, yellow shirt, blue pants, and green sneakers. There is a round metal trash can behind them.
Dad: Pick up your litter and save the Earth!
Panel 2: The year is 2004. Same dad, but in brown cargo shorts, brown shoes, and ankle high white socks speaking to the same kid. There is a green recycle bucket behind them.
Dad: Recycle and you can save the Earth!
Panel 3: The year is 2014. Same dad, but wearing a bike helmet, black athletic pants, and black sneakers to the same kid. A bike is behind them.
Dad: Reduce your carbon footprint and you can save the Earth!
Panel 4: The year is 2024. Same dad, but he’s in the same outfit from panel 1. There is a massive fire behind them.
Dad: Completely restructure global economic systems and you may be able to save a remnant of humanity!
If individual behaviour didn't matter, Canada wouldn't have 307% of global per capita emissions, and the US wouldn't have 285% while Finland only has 118% and Sweden has only 71% of the world average.
I picked those European countries in particular because they're rich, have cold winters, and have a low population density in a lot of the country.
The reality is that the US and Canada are decades behind Europe when it comes to these things. Sure, this guy in panel 2 is telling his kid to recycle, but Americans never took recycling seriously. Meanwhile in Zurich you have separate bins for green glass, brown glass, clear glass, along with the normal paper and plastic. If you don't want to recycle, you can do that, but it's going to cost you. You have to buy expensive special garbage bags to throw out anything that you don't recycle.
In panel 3 the guy is shown with a bike, but less than 0.5% of people bike to work. Meanwhile, in Finland, it's about 10% of people who commute by bike.
I loved the recycling outposts in the apartments in Korea (they even took styrofoam, probably just burned everything anyways though), but in US I asked my local politician about recycling, even said I’d pay a couple bucks extra a month in taxes for opting in, and he said it’s been tried before but people abused the system :(. Not sure what he meant by abused but now I procrastinate taking my recycling to a center until my garage is stuffed and it’s a major chore.
It really seems to me like many people really want to recycle and make a difference if they can, they just need a gentle nudge, or for it to not be too difficult. It's just that other people don't want to feel bad about not recycling, so they speak out against any change that makes it easier. Then there are the idiots who are in denial and think climate change is a hoax.