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|< < Prev #3226 (March 30, 2026)

Title text: "While I try to do my part to destroy the environment, I try not to focus too much on individual responsibility. By pushing for broad policy changes, we can collectively do far more damage to the biosphere than any of us could on our own."

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Explanation

This is incomplete: This page was created recently by HARMING THE ENVIRONMENT. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

Black Hat and Cueball are (presumably) outside Black Hat's house, discussing the solar panels he has recently installed on the roof. Being a classhole, Black Hat is attempting to live in a way that will maximize his negative impact on the environment. Cueball asks why he has installed solar panels, since he claims Black Hat has described himself as anti-renewable. Black Hat responds that, as much as he'd prefer an option that harmed the planet more, solar power is simply the cheapest option and his budget is incapable of supporting anything else.

Black Hat's words in panel 3, that "the technology just isn't there and the cost is too high", is an oft-repeated excuse for those sticking with fossil fuel use rather than potentially deploy renewable energy technology, such as solar panels. When solar panel technologies were in their infancy, their costs were very high^{[actual citation needed]}, pricing out most uses of them; but now solar panels are mass-produced, and it has become more affordable^{[actual citation needed]} for households to put solar panels on their rooftops, so the excuse has lost much of its validity. Nowadays this excuse is commonly used to justify technological inertia.

In the end, Black Hat claims that he can try to 'make up for this' by using the saved money to buy industrial waste and burn it in his backyard. Cueball responds with a knowing comment about 'carbon onsets'. This is a play on carbon offsets: certificates used for demonstrating mitigation of one's carbon footprint. Carbon offsets represent emission reductions or captures happening elsewhere, and can be used to offset emissions caused by the user of the credit. Black Hat does the reverse, causing extra environmental harm to offset (or "onset", as Cueball calls it) the good reluctantly done by him by using solar panels instead of an oil furnace. This doesn't really make sense since it's not clear what target he would be trying to 'onset' to; there is no 'ideal' level of emissions that he would be trying to achieve. While the solar panels will have a much lower carbon footprint than the oil furnace, they will still have some, and other options (such as burning coal) could provide him with even more emissions than the oil.

The title text is a spin on a standard argument about personal responsibility in tackling environmental issues, distorted through the perspective of Black Hat. Low amounts of action to address personal impact is sometimes excused by pointing out that it will be a 'drop in the ocean' relative to the scale of the problem, and suggesting that only action at a global institutional level can really address it. Black Hat believes (and is correct in that) policy and other systemic change can cause bigger damage than just him burning industrial waste, and is excited about the potential for this to change things for the worse. This is ironic, because ingrained institutional and systemic factors have played a significant role in causing the problems we now have, and holding up the finding of solutions to them.

This is one of the few comics Black Hat appeared in in the 3000s, the others being 3057, 3067, 3105, & 3202.

Transcript

[Black Hat and Cueball stand next to a house with solar panels on the roof.]

Cueball: Wait, you got solar panels?

Cueball: I thought you were against renewables.

[Zoom to show only Cueball and Black Hat.]

Black Hat: Oh, definitely. I hate the environment and want to harm it as much as possible.

Black Hat: I'd love to have an oil furnace.

[Zoom in on Black Hat; only his head and shoulders are visible.]

Black Hat: But the technology just isn't there and the cost is too high.

Black Hat: I despise solar, but it makes more financial sense in my situation.

[Zoom out to show Cueball and Black Hat again.]

Black Hat: But with the money I'm saving, I can buy and burn industrial waste in my yard to try to make up for it.

Cueball: Ah, yeah, carbon onsets.

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Discussion

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This is a test. PoolloverNathan^{[stalk the blue seas]} 20:48, 16 March 2021 (UTC)

This is not. —While False (museum | talk | contributions | logs | rights | printable version | page information | what links there | related changes | Google search | current time: 13:10) 18:38, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

A foreign student asked me to help fight against his math teacher. That was unusual. He was in that class for just a couple of weeks. The teacher's phone number was sent to me. The student asked me to spam-call the teacher. 172.71.155.55 22:58, 18 September 2023 (UTC)

here i'm just messing around in html, ignore this

^furhhfghure _{guyrburgryhuyvfr} "rvhru"

interesting way of writing quotations xd

hmmm this one of putting "<p>" in a line break will come in handy for when i want it to start at the same place than the first line

Please beware that <p> on mediawiki also disables automatic paragraph breaks, so you need a closing </p> or you'll break automatic paragraph formatting for the rest of the page. Zmatt (talk) 22:06, 31 July 2024 (UTC)

edit: da hek did that "</div>" come from An user who has no account yet (talk) 14:14, 13 October 2023 (UTC)

hi uh its hard to get here. is this a reference to undocumented feature??? hmm... this is interesting.
108.162.241.216 02:05, 23 November 2023 (UTC)

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yum yum [citation needed]

Hiuiedeixgeyceiyedhcdiedcve {{trout}}

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<a href=" [AT THE JULY 28TH MEETING][tab] "Cancel the meeting! Our cover is blown."> More testing: hello ​ does​this​work (yes​it​does) This isn't a good name (talk) 22:44, 28 January 2026 (UTC)

‮hi 164.58.172.158 14:21, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

What is this?????????????????????? King Pando (talk) 04:25, 10 March 2026 (UTC)‭
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