Pretty confident in my solve. The only ones I didn’t get myself were 20-down, 29-down (obvious in retrospect), and 21-across (inferred the word, but didn’t know the tool).

        N I X O S
        O     P   K     C P
G T K   O     E M A C S   R
N   D E B I A N   L   C L I
O N E     T   S   I   R   N
M         H   U     M I N T
E D I T O R   S       P     H
  O       E L E M E N T A R Y
  N U C L E I     A   I     P
L G     S   N     G E N D E R
  L S       U     L   G     L
  E         X F C E         A
L S       P     E   L       N
S       Z O R I N O S     C D
          P     T

Ah, sorry. I sometimes forget to check for name continuity.

I’m not defending fossil-fueled energy production. When the product is energy it’s inexcusable to produce it in such a grossly irresponsible manner.

But if “coal energy” specifically was the product, and consumers overwhelmingly directly choose it rather than available renewable energy, then yeah I’d cut companies a bit more slack. When the harm isn’t in method but the product, and people are choosing that product instead of alternatives, then much of the blame rests on them.

Do you really only do good things when you’ve been conditioned to do so? You don’t ever try to grow past what society tells you? I’m not asking you to solve everything. I’m asking you not to be a part of the problem. Defending your behavior by pointing to that of others has not been a historically sound position.

As much as I’m generally on your side, that’s not honestly answering the premise, which is that those chickens do live a happy live.

I personally don’t seek so-called ethical meat because every example I’ve looked into has been a lie, and if it does exist it’s not worth my time to comb through supply lines in search for a product whose origin I would always worry about, and that I can do perfectly well without.

As horrible as those people are, it’s not like they’re just belching carbon dioxide into the atmosphere for fun. They’re fulfilling demand. That 40% wouldn’t disappear just by spreading ownership of the factories to more people. That’s not to say that individual action is the only thing that works. Regulations need to be put in place to curb emissions, incentives should reward producers for investing & transitioning to more sustainable practices, and yes, monopolies need to get split up.

But the fact remains that some products are just bad for the environment. As as long as people continue buying those products they’ll keep being produced. And when animal agriculture accounts for about as many emissions as the entire transportation industry, this seems like one of the easier steps to make.

The “my actions won’t end this problem so I don’t need to do anything” mentality never comes up in any other field (politeness, crimes, social change, voting). Yeah, choosing to never hold open doors for others wouldn’t noticeably affect the global rate, but I doubt you’d use that logic to justify being rude.