“小李子”的碳生活方式.doc

小李子”的碳生活方式 Leonardo DiCaprio s Carbon Lifestyle At the 2016 Academy Awards ， Leo DiCaprio accepted his Best Actor trophy with a speech that included a passionate call to action on climate change.1 As inevitably as night follows day ， social media was flooded with people attacking DiCaprio as a hypocrite for living a carbon-intensive lifestyle.2 This kind of thing has been around for as long as I ve been writing about climate change. People never tire of pointing out that Al Gore lives in a “ mansion” or that scientists fly all over the world to climate conferences ， spewing CO2.3 Any time I mention a vacation online I am immediately scolded as a hypocrite by at least one of the trolls who follow me around waiting for such opportunities.4 It s not just conservatives or climate skeptics ， either.5 There have always been plenty of environmentalists and liberals who scorn Gore and other climate leaders for their supposed hypocrisy.6 There s clearly something powerful in the critique7. It elicits strong ， intuitive reactions ，8 which is rare with arguments related to climate change. But I don t think it holds up9. In particular ， I think it runs two different arguments together. Argument 1： Climate advocates who dont reduce their emissions are hypocrites10 This is the claim that really grabs people at a gut level.11 And it makes a certain sense： If you say carbon emissions are bad， and you emit lots of carbon ， and you dont work to reduce your own carbon emissions ， then either a ) you don t really think carbon emissions are bad ， or b) you re a hypocrite. But there s a hidden premise here， which lots of people take for granted but shouldn t.12 The premise is that personal emission reductions are an important part of the fight against climate change ― if you take climate seriously ， you take on an obligation13 to reduce your own emissions. Is that true ？ Not necessarily. It is entirely possible to believe， as many people do ， that voluntary emission reductions are poi