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What can I do about climate change?

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Re: What can I do about climate change?

#111

Post by dev_north_east »

_wc0m wrote: post #40

I agree this article isn't as terrible as average. Going vegetarian and cycling to work once a week might make you feel good but it ain't gonna make a difference. It's a political problem. It needs a political solution. Agitate and vote for the most left-wing party you can (that has a realistic chance of winning/influencing an election). Campaign for them to institute a ban on fossil fuels. Protest. Climb smokestacks…

> Agitate and vote for the most left-wing party you can

What's that got to do with the price of fish? The main left parties in my area still harp on about the coalmines. Then you have the Greens who are anti-nuclear, anti-Gm, anti-everything who seem to spend most of their time now involved in infighting over trans nonsense.

Re: What can I do about climate change?

#112

Post by ForHackernews »

doombolt wrote: post #93
ForHackernews wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your children's contribution to climate change is their contribution, not yours. It's not some moral game of attribution of blame, it's just maths. Fewer people produce less CO2.

Yes, your children don't get to live to benefit some other people's children. That, or we end as species. Guess what? Worst case of global warming, mankind extermination. "Best" case, also mankind extermination.

What a bunch of tosh. You're worried about "extinction" from people having fewer kids? Meanwhile, we're on track to 10 billion people before 2050.

Talk about premature optimisation!

Re: What can I do about climate change?

#113

Post by xapata »

tokyodude wrote: post #39

I don't have a single friend or even. aquaintence who would do any of the top 3 things long the list of 148 most impactful things an individual can do they were 1. have one less kid. I can maybe imagine a friend choosing not to have 3 but I can't imagine someone wanting 2 to go to 1 or someone wanting 1 to go to 0 for this reason 2. go carless Sone friends live in a city that supports a carless lifestyle and already…

3 can be to travel by bus instead of airplane for domestic trips. And to take fewer flights.

I used to travel for work, flying nearly every week. I quit, party because of the environmental concern.

Re: What can I do about climate change?

#114

Post by chupasaurus »

pdimitar wrote: post #31
ido wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off-topic but what's wrong with electrical kettles? was her position to not boil water or to use a different kind of kettle? My Kitchen has electric range so I doubt using a non-electric kettle on it would be any more efficient.

The main argument against them was along the veins of that it draws big amounts of wattage in an initial burst and that we must use "slower" and thus allegedly more sustainable tech. Which is ridiculuous because every electrician will tell you that your home-grade fuses and the switchboard of your house/block handle such loads quite well without much additional strain on... anything, really. I quickly wrote her off a…

Well, electric kettles are sort of a problem for british energy system which had someone watching BBC 1 and 2 for a decade (IIRC) in the evenings so they could handle peaks in a national grid at the very first minute of pauses between shows.

Re: What can I do about climate change?

#115

Post by wilgertvelinga »

oppzixi00 wrote: post #51
wilgertvelinga wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A thorough explanation why: https://youtu.be/YjFWiMJdotM (don't forget to turn on captions if your Dutch is lacking)

There's no way to scale up nuclear power at the rate needed. Too expensive, needs too much capital, too slow to build.

Do you have the source for that? (it's not that I don't believe you, just curious)

Re: What can I do about climate change?

#116

Post by pdimitar »

shoo wrote: post #69
pdimitar wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would not. Whether I want to go somewhere 20km away (the other end of my city) or not has zero correlation if other people have cars or not.

what about if there was some kind of global system of decision-making where others could influence or incentivise your day-to-day actions? e.g. hypothetically would you support a global carbon tax* priced high enough so that driving somewhere wasn't by default a sensible decision? * supposing, hypothetically, we had some effective way of reaching such an agreement and enforcing it

If the alternative was just as comfortable and fast, I would be the first to throw away my car. I have zero ego attachments to such objects, I am after their comfort and practical value.

Re: What can I do about climate change?

#117

Post by pdimitar »

k_ wrote: post #79
pdimitar wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would not. Whether I want to go somewhere 20km away (the other end of my city) or not has zero correlation if other people have cars or not.

Doesn't seem too bad to me with a bike and a city giving priority to bikes. Surely less convenient than using a car, but I guess you get used to it. Like you are used to do it in something like 25 minutes with a car, even though there could be near-instant methods of travel available (it's science fiction but still to the point: when you don't have (or don't have any more, for some time) a better alternative, you can…

People would not care and would ditch cars if the time and comfort were the same. If the comfort factor is not there though, I feel most wouldn't part with their cars.

Re: What can I do about climate change?

#118

Post by oppzixi00 »

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #101
pdimitar wrote: post #6

This article's quality is higher than many others on the same topic and that's a pleasant surprise. That being said, I can't help being reminded about German language lessons I had ~10 years ago where the teacher was preaching that we must all ditch electric kettles for the sake of the planet. I asked her how is this going to help -- even if 100_00 people do it today -- if corporations are happy to let toxic waste se…

There's a fallacy with this type of thinking. It's something to the effect that "the big bad wolf is causing the trouble, therefore, I'm powerless to do anything" The reason corporations do what they do is because they are providing a service to millions of customers at the lowest cost and the highest profits for them. We, consumers, like to shift all the blame to someone else, it lets us continue as we have without…

> We, consumers, like to shift all the blame to someone else,

An analogue: committing a crime is punishable, inciting it in some cases may be. It is the companies who dig up fossil fuels and use them --- "consumers told me to do it" is not an excuse that absolves from responsibility. Those trading in fossil fuels do what they do on their own accord, for financial gain, and hence carry the responsibility.

Re: What can I do about climate change?

#119

Post by pdimitar »

chupasaurus wrote: post #114
pdimitar wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main argument against them was along the veins of that it draws big amounts of wattage in an initial burst and that we must use "slower" and thus allegedly more sustainable tech. Which is ridiculuous because every electrician will tell you that your home-grade fuses and the switchboard of your house/block handle such loads quite well without much additional strain on... anything, really. I quickly wrote her off a…

Well, electric kettles are sort of a problem for british energy system which had someone watching BBC 1 and 2 for a decade (IIRC) in the evenings so they could handle peaks in a national grid at the very first minute of pauses between shows.

As I mentioned in another sibling comment here -- that's not my problem. I pay my bills and the rest is for them to figure out. I work, I buy my tech fairly, I don't see what else I could do.

I am not a law regulator, I am not a technician, I am not an environmentalist. I buy tech because it helps me save time and effort in my busy day. It's the corps and the governments responsibility to make sure the tech is eco-friendly, not mine.

Re: What can I do about climate change?

#120

Post by tomp »

ed_balls wrote: post #70
tomp wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does “replace typical car with hybrid” help at all? Does regenerative braking save that much energy?

I depends on you location and driving in the city e.g. Prius can have less total CO2 emission than Tesla S if the electricity comes from fossil fuels. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RhtiPefVzM

I find that hard to believe. So you're saying that Prius, despite being more complicated (as it needs to route both internal combustion and electric power to the wheels), has an electric motor/transmission more efficient than Tesla and internal combustion engine more efficient than power plants? The only way I think that's possible is if weight is taken into account, Prius seems to be a bit smaller and thus possibly lighter than Model S...
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