"Go play outside" is an easy counter.
The point is legislating what people do with energy for their own personal use is folly.
I think we're rapidly moving to an age where every carbon emission and energy bill is going to get calculated differently, economically. Its the only way to save capitalism - pricing needs to align with a sustainable planet and lifestyle because the cost of not doing so is so much higher, nobody will want to go there.
We're in fact calculating that very principle right now as the expense and frequency of natural disasters is increasing. It will kill our current economical model, and it has in fact already done so, we just fail to realize it and keep jumping to bandaids to hide it, with the end result of even more ecological, social and economical long term damage. But it gets impossible to hide when first world countries simply get surprised by things all the time; a pandemic now, mass flooding a few months ago, all events that were either predicted and not listened to, or surpass every prediction we could model thus far. We have no excuse for it, no explanation, but the public does demand one. After all, as the most wealthy and advanced countries in the world, if we can't handle and predict that proper, why would anyone else? This is the train of thought we're on, for understandable reasons as we democratically said we trust our governments to prevent those disasters.
We like money, but what we like a lot less, is insecurity and getting surprised by things out of our control. The latter is quickly gaining the upper hand.
Also... we already legislate what people do with their energy. This is reflected in tax on energy in different ways. The fact that flying halfway across the world is relatively cheap, is another way, albeit the wrong way, of stimulating
more use of energy. The rules surrounding crypto and its decentralised character is another way of enabling more use of energy for no apparent purpose. So you say its folly, but we have in fact been using such policy for decades now, just the other way around. Packaged under the monikor of 'freedom' but in reality, it serves the purpose of funneling money to happy few. What's happening now in younger generations and activism is the realization that the 'freedom' of rampant energy use is in fact killing the freedoms of future generations. Our freedom is another one's prison.
This movement is growing the world over:
The climate and environmental crisis is raging on, our government is not doing enough. It's time for action, join Extinction Rebellion!
extinctionrebellion.nl
