Let’s clarify some things:

• This is criminal, not civil. The board of directors and executive leadership should be held criminally liable.
• polluting waters directly leads to suffering and death on a mass scale. It would not an exaggeration to compare it to a weapon of mass destruction.
• the board of directors and executive leadership are, therefore, mass murderers and should be prosecuted as such.
• the business should be dissolved and sold off. Major shareholders should be on the hook to repair all the damage done by the company.

Until we all start internalizing this way of thinking, nothing will ever change. Fines will not fix anything. The corporate shield is a lie. When your company kills people at this scale, your liability shielding is irrelevant.

Did you read what I said about AI? I don’t think so, given your response. To simplify, as I skipped some steps, I was addressing some people who’ve thought about the problem slightly more than an iota. Some think AI systems that govern over humans could help address the human corruptibility / hierarchy problem. It does not.

There are an infinite set of realities. You can see them for yourself, but something tells me you’ll continue onward in your lovely little cage.

Have a nice 3-dimensional day :)

Once “the people” seize the means of production, how will it be run & organized? We might need some people to coordinate between other people. What will these coordinators be called? And what if they abuse their positions? We might need some people that keep coordinators accountable, that audit their behavior, we can call them auditors…

If you aren’t getting where I am going with this, I will just say that while your sentiment might make sense to you, this is a real problem for you to think about. Seizing the means of production is meaningless without a mechanism by which to run it. As soon as you trust other human beings with that ability, you create another class with authority, and thus, the road leads back to exactly where you are.

AI will not fix this because it is centralized compute trained on oppressive data. Perhaps if the data centers were publicly owned and the data was vetted, there would be a better chance, but more likely? It would be AI with human oversight…and yes, same problem again. If a human oversight committee exists, that is once again a human authority position that can be abused. And it doesn’t matter because the planet has foolishly relinquished control of compute power to a tiny minority.

While I believe we are slated for doom (that isn’t so bad, there are much better realities than this one anyway), I’d at least like to see a tiny fraction of intelligent resistance. This has got to be the most disappointing apocalypse I’ve ever witnessed. All the tools are clearly laid out and we’ve collectively chosen to be miserable instead.

Stop repeating the pattern. Find a new way.

We can all do much more than straws.

Edit: let me rephrase this. Unless you are a billionaire, there is nothing you can do individually that matters. The problem requires banding together and holding these people accountable. This requires honest communication so people at least understand what the real problem is.

Given we are barely at the honest communication stage and ignorance is running rampant, and that we have a fast approaching deadline before nothing we do will work, I do not have much optimism for the survival of our species.

Sorry, but I am confiscating your moral license if the straw you use is justification.

The straw you use does nothing but make you feel better, which I would argue is harmful. You shouldn’t feel better for doing nothing when such large problems exist.

Your use of the right straw is akin to you killing a single invasive ant in a rain forest, and saying you did your part to remove the invasive colony. You then spend every opportunity talking about how you killed that single ant, all while the ants have already multiplied and utterly nullified your non-effort contribution.

Shipping barges, data centers, meat production, gas and coal burning are all many orders of magnitudes greater problems than what straw you use. Gas, coal, and fossil fuel use is over 70% of all emissions, so that should be the primary conversation. In addition, these are all growing in use. Talk about that. Put your attention and action towards that.