^ MB is a music forum, and people post here for the pleasure they get out of sharing ideas. People who post in the Trump thread want to talk about Trump; just because they are not fomenting social change doesn't invalidate the discussion. It's like when I post in a Beatles vs Stones thread, I don't expect that the Beatles will somehow defeat the Stones in real life.

None the less, discussion can lead to people revising their opinions. That is something I have personally experienced and I've seen it happen to others on MB. What is more, neither you nor I know how far the ideas brought up here affect members' conduct irl, so why assume, without evidence, people aren't "doing a darn thing" ?

^ Of course price is enormously important to consumers, but there are also people who make choices based on a concern for the environment. I'd like to mention them too, to get some balance.

^ I don't agree with this fatalistic attitude, and I'm not on board with your facile dismissal of the problems that our children will face either. I subscribe more to this notion:

We don't inherit the world from our ancestors. We have it on loan from our children.

I'm sorry that you have shifted from your earlier position of concern for the environment and are now bragging about the joys of conspicuous materialism instead. That's quite a turn around.

I ride my bicycle to work every day. I don't own a car by choice. I recycle everything I can: paper, plastic, metal, cardboard, batteries, computer parts. I buy all clothes (except underwear and socks) secondhand. I always take a canvas bag with me grocery shopping, never taking plastic or paper bags from the supermarkets.

And although I've heard that the individual consumer's impact is very small because of factory farming and industrialism and whatnot, I'm still going to carry on doing what I'm doing.

^ Good for you, Zhanteimi ! I'm delighted to hear that I'm not alone in taking some personal responsibility for my impact on the environment. I don't go as far as you, I'm afraid, because after five car-less decades I finally succumbed to the convenience of a car to take my son to school, but I have kept it to a very modest two-door urban run-around. At a rough estimate, my clothes are prob 50% second hand or hand-me-downs, and my bookcases are re-purposed orange crates.

^ Absolutely times two on this :clap:

In Japan, not owning a car is a pretty easy “choice”

You have too many ****ing kids though.

Not breeding is the only real environmentalism

^ Those two comments are a bit harsh imo, though I agree that we urgently need to reduce current birthrates. If every couple had max one or two kids, the population would stabilize or halve in a generation, right?

Depends on how long mother****ers live

That's true - all the scientific advances that hint at postponing aging are greeted as triumphs by the media, but there is the downside of clogging up the job and housing market with old folks. Perhaps some of us need to spend more time coming to terms with our mortality than trying to postpone that last grim day that we all arrive at sometime. :(

4sho