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Climate change: US emissions in 2020 in biggest fall since WWII

bbc.com

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Re: Climate change: US emissions in 2020 in biggest fall since WWII

#11

Post by polka_haunts_us »

badRNG wrote: post #3
jedberg wrote: post #2

And personal savings are way up. But it's unlikely either of these trends will hold after 2021.

Source? Anecdotally most folks I know have had to burn through their savings after living off of unemployment or going through underemployment this past year.

Anecdotally as someone in a family all of whom are thriving financially during the pandemic, here are possible reasons it could be true.

* My student loan payments are frozen, I believe the total balance of student loans that are frozen is something like 85% country wide.

* People working remotely = low transit expenses.

* No live events = low entertainment expenses.

* Raging pandemic = low travel expenses.

* Investment = stock market has been very profitable since march. I made 100% last year just on random long term investment.

Basically, if you have a job that was exceeding the minimum threshold of living expenses, any of the extraneous things you were spending money on, other than eating out maybe, have evaporated.

Obviously there is a notable segment of the population that is not doing well, can barely if at all cover day to day expenses, and unemployment has gone up, but that segment isn't necessarily a majority.

That's all just speculation though, I'm not claiming parent is correct.

Re: Climate change: US emissions in 2020 in biggest fall since WWII

#12

Post by SuoDuanDao »

airza wrote: post #7
flatline wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/246268/personal-savings-...

when your disposable income is zero, doesn't that drive the statistics way out of wack?

The poorest X% not showing up in any statistics used for policy making is probably a longstanding problem... and it's probably hard to estimate by how much X has changed over the past year.

Re: Climate change: US emissions in 2020 in biggest fall since WWII

#13

Post by StreamBright »

savanaly wrote: post #10

Is it possible that Sars-cov-2 epidemic will eventually save more lives than it cost, through the long term and short term effects of decreased pollution and climate change? If that's true, we have to entertain the theory that the virus was purposefully initiated by a time-traveler charged with averting climate catastrophe through the only means possible.

Not really, there are very few climate related deaths.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-deaths-from-nat...

I think more people die from diabetes and covid than climate.

Re: Climate change: US emissions in 2020 in biggest fall since WWII

#15

Post by remarkEon »

savanaly wrote: post #10

Is it possible that Sars-cov-2 epidemic will eventually save more lives than it cost, through the long term and short term effects of decreased pollution and climate change? If that's true, we have to entertain the theory that the virus was purposefully initiated by a time-traveler charged with averting climate catastrophe through the only means possible.

I've had this thought, but it's a thought experiment that I kinda don't want to go engage in. I've also been wondering if the death toll in the US is so high because, well, Americans are just really unhealthy and overweight and that increased morbidity in a way that was unique in the world. Non-compliance with stay-at-home and mask wearing obviously didn't help, but I can't shake the feeling that the structural problems with health in the US set us up for failure years (decades?) before the pandemic even started.

Re: Climate change: US emissions in 2020 in biggest fall since WWII

#16

Post by JimiofEden »

StreamBright wrote: post #13
savanaly wrote: post #10

Is it possible that Sars-cov-2 epidemic will eventually save more lives than it cost, through the long term and short term effects of decreased pollution and climate change? If that's true, we have to entertain the theory that the virus was purposefully initiated by a time-traveler charged with averting climate catastrophe through the only means possible.

Not really, there are very few climate related deaths. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-deaths-from-nat... I think more people die from diabetes and covid than climate.

There are CURRENTLY very few climate related deaths. The person you're responding to is wondering if more lives would be saved in the long run, maybe the next 1000 years.

Re: Climate change: US emissions in 2020 in biggest fall since WWII

#17

Post by anewaccount2021 »

badRNG wrote: post #3
jedberg wrote: post #2

And personal savings are way up. But it's unlikely either of these trends will hold after 2021.

Source? Anecdotally most folks I know have had to burn through their savings after living off of unemployment or going through underemployment this past year.

"Source" is no poor people use HN.

Edit: this was not meant to disparage the poor. Quite the opposite. HN tends to have a blinkered worldview and part of that results from the filtered audience. Sorry, we just don't have people showing up here who got laid from serving bar, or single mothers with four kids, etc. Poor single mothers don't save money by skipping trips to Greece or not going out for Wagyu A5 twice a month...

Re: Climate change: US emissions in 2020 in biggest fall since WWII

#18

Post by renewiltord »

JimiofEden wrote: post #16
StreamBright wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really, there are very few climate related deaths. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-deaths-from-nat... I think more people die from diabetes and covid than climate.

There are CURRENTLY very few climate related deaths. The person you're responding to is wondering if more lives would be saved in the long run, maybe the next 1000 years.

The relative value of future deaths is interesting, right? To be honest you have to discount them a little because if you kill a guy today before he has kids, you've killed his kids too.

Re: Climate change: US emissions in 2020 in biggest fall since WWII

#19

Post by renewiltord »

kristopolous wrote: post #14
cblconfederate wrote: post #6

Yeah but people already miss being stuck in traffic and their daily commute so it's not going to last

I've heard people actually say this. The horror, the horror.

It's the "I like 4 seasons" of commuting.

Re: Climate change: US emissions in 2020 in biggest fall since WWII

#20

Post by flatline »

airza wrote: post #7
flatline wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/246268/personal-savings-...

when your disposable income is zero, doesn't that drive the statistics way out of wack?

I do not know whether it accounts for a negative savings rate, but the graph does show that people with disposable income were saving more this past year during the pandemic, which means they were spending less on consumer goods. There were probably two driving factors behind this: fear of economic instability due to the pandemic, and a lack of availability of paid activities due to the same. Presumably, consumer spending will rise again, as will travel and hence fossil fuel consumption per the original post.
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