Climate politics in Finland

[roopepa]

So... There has lately been a lot of talk about climate change in Finland. Extinction Rebellion held a few protest here, by blocking certain roads for a day or two.

Their goal is to have the government declare climate emergency and make Finland carbon neutral before 2025. (2025 is kinda silly imo but at least they got a vision)

The right-wing and others opposing XRs protests naturally arguments just like everywhere else, childish low-conscious stuff, nothing new. Although there seems to be this one argument I wish to have some clarity on.

They basically say that even if Finland managed to become carbon neutral, this would have no effect whatsoever on a global scale. Finland has such a low population number and carbon footprint compared to the "big ones": China, US, Russia and such. So they say it's a useless goal.

I get their argument, and I see some truth there, but here are my thoughts: first of all, this is self-deception. Such thoughts are just shoving the responsibility for someone else, out of sight. "It's not me, it's YOU!" , forgetting the "us-ness" of the situation.

And secondly, I think that even though our carbon neutrality would have a miniscule effect, I would find it smart for Finland to be one of those countries who figures out how to do it, how to effectively and smartly achieve carbon neutrality, so that the big ones might learn something from us. What and how & how not. IMO this would be a beautiful vision for Finland.

What do you guys think about this? Do you think it would be smart for us to start pushing for carbon neutrality? Is this a smart vision, or a stupid one?

[DocWatts]

The benefit of smaller countries like Finland decarbonizing is that they serve as a Model or Case Study for the larger countries to look to; both to prove that it can be done, and as a sort of working model or template that can be learned from and adapted to the particular circumstances of different countries.

Sort of similar to how Universal Basic Income is being experimented with on a small scale first, with the hope that it can eventually be adapted to work at increasingly larger scales.

[Godhead]

Yes, there is truth to that. Finland is a tiny country and its effect on global climate change will be next to nothing. 

As you mentioned, countries like Finland, Norway, etc. are to set an example for the world. 

If you ever meet a conservative asking what about China and India, just ask them whether they will want to wait until India is working on climate change until Finland will.

"So you want one of those shithole countries to beat us in climate change??" Appeal to their national pride lol.