Thread by @Noahpinion

Climate shouters: "If we don't abolish capitalism right now, THE PLANET WILL DIE"

Me: "Even if abolishing capitalism reduced emissions considerably, the U.S produces only a modest fraction of carbon emissions."

Climate shouters: "But per capita, we produce a lot more!"

Me: "But the climate doesn't care about per capita emissions. Only about total emissions."

Climate shouters: "But...but...we have to show moral leadership!!"

Me: "So, can we amend your initial statement to read 'If we don't abolish capitalism right now, we won't show moral leadership'?"

Climate shouters: "So what do you propose we do?!"

Me: "Invest in creating green energy technologies, especially via private businesses that learn to build cheaper energy storage at scale, then transfer the tech to poor countries and pay them to adopt it quickly."

Climate shouters: "NO! No private companies!! No capitalism!!"

Me: "OK then we could try to research carbon removal technology so we can remove the carbon that poor countries emit..."

Climate shouters: "NO! No carbon removal!!"

Me: "OK then I give up. Guess the best we can do is decrease our little slice of global emissions and hope our moral example prompts the rest of the world to make the huge sacrifices necessary to actually save the planet."

Climate shouters: "ABOLISH CAPITALISM!!!"

(finis)