101–110 of 219 posts
Remember that car tire degredation is a significant portion of microplastics in the environment. Investing in mass transit is as imperative as it was to move away from leaded gasoline.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's realistically fewer than twenty metro areas in the US where the majority of commuters could rely solely on biking and public transit for everything. Twenty might be generous, even.
There is a positive spin on this: the majority of Americans already live in or near dense urban centers. If we had solid public transportation only within these centers and to adjacent suburbs we would eliminate most car trips. That's bot much physical area to cover.
I live "in" a major American city. Well, a reasonably major Midwestern city. It's roughly a third the size of Rhode Island. It has half a million people in it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Move away from big cities and high traffic areas in the meantime is my solution.
Hope you never have to drive to the grocery store
US supermarkets are massive, take forever to buy small amounts of groceries, and even the walk to and from the car is long.
A better world is possible! (If better grocery stores constitute a "better world")
Earlier quoted context omitted.
[flagged]
Obviously parent post is not making the point you're trying to argue, only making the point that the measurement is flawed. If you are going to address their argument do it in good faith and address the strongest point. This isn't reddit
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And we need more lightweight cars , not heavier, since tire wear is proportional to vehicle weight to the fourth power. Ironically, CAFE regulations and EV incentives both did the opposite
Do you have a citation for the vehicle weight to the fourth figure? There is about a 2X variation in the weight of the vehicles I’ve owned, but even accounting for differences in tire size, I can’t come up with a 16x difference in how often I change the tires. Thinking about it a different way, there isn’t much difference in recommended tire pressure among the autos I’ve owned. That means that the pressure between th…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting. My father has received a ton of donor blood over the past few years. Once he's gone I'll be donating regularly. My father's alive because dozens of people donated. To anyone here that has made a deposit to the blood bank: we thank you.
blood bank CEO thanks you too because the make millions selling your blood
Donating blood is good for other people regardless of the profit motive from the company.
And if you're talking about the Red Cross, their CEO is reported to make less than 700k/year.
That's not bad for running one of the largest medical non-profits in the world.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And we need more lightweight cars , not heavier, since tire wear is proportional to vehicle weight to the fourth power. Ironically, CAFE regulations and EV incentives both did the opposite
Do you have a citation for the vehicle weight to the fourth figure? There is about a 2X variation in the weight of the vehicles I’ve owned, but even accounting for differences in tire size, I can’t come up with a 16x difference in how often I change the tires. Thinking about it a different way, there isn’t much difference in recommended tire pressure among the autos I’ve owned. That means that the pressure between th…
Okay I’m sorry for the snark but when these articles come up some are like “the studies are inconclusive of the effects” but I’m just like “there’s plastic in your brain!”
I like the analogy where other articles have said we have microplastics in our brain about the size of a credit card (which generally weigh between 4g and 10g) better. Saying a “spoon’s worth” seems to be downplaying the unmitigated potential risk. We have no idea what will happen as we (and all the other creatures on earth) keep storing more and more microplastics in our organs. Nobody is going to stop driving. Car…
Not to mention that all spoons are different. I always get confused about “half a spoon”. Is it half of a “pile” or there must be half of its surface visible from above, while the subject matter is flat in the spoon (i.e. the lateral projection shows only the spoon). And should you account for the pile slope in case of bulk materials? And then when you figure that out, your spoon may be anywhere 0.5-1.5x in size/dept…
If they're going for shock value they should use something more sinister than a spoon. Like enough plastic to make a little decorative Halloween spider. People would be more frightened by a spider than a spoonful of plastic.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And we need more lightweight cars , not heavier, since tire wear is proportional to vehicle weight to the fourth power. Ironically, CAFE regulations and EV incentives both did the opposite
Do you have a citation for the vehicle weight to the fourth figure? There is about a 2X variation in the weight of the vehicles I’ve owned, but even accounting for differences in tire size, I can’t come up with a 16x difference in how often I change the tires. Thinking about it a different way, there isn’t much difference in recommended tire pressure among the autos I’ve owned. That means that the pressure between th…