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0 pointsZeroGravitas4y ago0 comments

Assuming you are genuine, there's plenty of sensible advice out there already on how to cut your fossil fuel usage. Linking that to the current story of Russia's oligarchs using their fossil profits to invade and kill democratic neighbours gives people an impetus to do things that will actually make their own life better, but that they may not have heard about, because right-wing propaganda has drowned it out.

As I shared recently, most countries will have the equivalent of

https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/energy-at-home/

Which will tell you ways to save money, and keep your house warmer while also reducing fossil fuel usage. Find and disseminate that, the wider knowledge of fossil fuels being an expensive con will do more to destabilize Putin than anything I've read on your page currently.

If you want people to tie it closer to Ukraine, point out that these sites will often tell you how much money you will save by making these choices, get people to donate that money to Ukraine or an organisation that is helping us to move off fossil fuels.

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jaltekruse4y ago· 2 in thread

But obviously people aren't doing this on a massive scale. Despite appliances getting more efficient, energy consumption continues to rise faster than population increases.

I'm trying to mobilize a wartime effort of massive reductions to increase western soft power. If just 2-5% of the buildings currently being heated in the world could have their thermostats effectively off that would change the calculus that pretty much all of Europe is struggling with. It is the exact reason we were slow to cut off SWIFT, and we are still holding back on anything like a proactive oil or gas embargo from our side.

Those options are totally off the table if we cannot rally widespread support for righting Russian aggression, maybe even going further than lighting up buildings with colors and sending money to a out-manned nation that is under siege.

ZeroGravitasOP4y ago

Energy consumption isn't a problem. Only fossil fuel use. And it only benefits Putin to conflate the two of those things, as they are quite distinct.

jaltekruse4y ago

In the short term the two are interchangeable, we cannot build enough solar panels and batteries to help the people being killed in Ukraine today.

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