What does 无妨 mean in 即别人都过“低碳生活”，我自己过“高碳生活”也无妨?

Question

In the following sentence:

我们每个人都是世界公民，千万不应该有低碳生活与己无关的想法，即别人都过“低碳生活”，我自己过“高碳生活”也无妨。

无妨 means "might as well", "there is no harm", or "no matter".

However, it then makes no sense, since the meaning would become something like the following:

Every person is the world citizen, so should never have the idea that low-carbon life is irrelevant with yourself. That is, others make a low-carbon life while I make a high-carbon life is also no harm (无妨).

This does not make sense, as 无妨 seems to be positive connotation for the sentence 我自己过“高碳生活”, which is incompatible with the author's point of view, which proposes the low-carbon life.

So what is the meaning of 无妨 here? Is my understanding here correct in the first place?

Answer 1

What you post under Philipp's answer is correct, which I have upvoted it.

即 here indeed means 'that is'.

So 低碳生活与己无关的 想法: the notion of excluding ourselves from the concept "low-carbon life";

即： that is (the notion[想法] is);

别人都过“低碳生活”，我自己过“高碳生活”也无妨。: Since other people live a low-carbon life (already), it's ok/not a big deal for me to live a high-carbon life. (apparently this is a selfish notion, which the author is trying to persuade people not to have.)

无妨 means there is no harm. I interpret 无妨 here as ok/not a big deal according to the context.

Answer 2

我们每个人都是世界公民，千万不应该有低碳生活与己无关的想法，既别人都过“低碳生活”，我自己过“高碳生活”也无妨。

We are all living on this planet, and we definitely shouldn’t think that a low-carbon lifestyle doesn’t have anything to do with us personally.
And neither should we think that, since there are so many other people already following this low-carbon lifestyle, it wouldn’t matter if we personally had a very high carbon footprint.

The meaning of this is that

• A low-carbon lifestyle is important for the world, and we should know this.
• Many have realized this and follow a low-carbon lifestyle.
• But the fact that many people are producing very little carbon is not a reason for you personally to think that there is no harm if you produce more than others. (Because if everybody thinks that way, then everybody will be living a high-carbon lifestyle again.)

Answer 3

I bet you will have no issue understanding this if I rearrange it a little:

我们每个人都是世界公民，千万不应该有 “低碳生活与己无关，既别人都过“低碳生活”，我自己过“高碳生活”也无妨” 的想法。

The original sentence has a slightly odd structure in my opinion. The way I have arranged it here is better and is how you should write yourself.

Answer 4

This is not a direct answer but a proposal of corrections that more or less preserve the core meaning of the given sentence.

• 我们每个人都是世界公民，千万不应该有低碳生活与己无关的想法——既然别人都过“低碳生活”，我自己过“高碳生活”也无妨。

• 我们每个人都是世界公民，千万不应该有“低碳生活与己无关”的想法，即“别人都过‘低碳生活’，我自己过‘高碳生活’也无妨”的想法。

Answer 5

我们每个人都是世界公民，
We are all citizens of this (one) world,
千万不应该有低碳生活与己无关的想法，
we absolutely should not think, "low carbon lifestyle has nothing to do with me,"
即别人都过“低碳生活”，
namely, (we should not think) "if other people live 'low carbon lives,'
我自己过“高碳生活”也无妨。
(then) there is no harm in my living a 'high carbon life.' "