Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd love to hear these recommendations. I know you thrive without a car in New York and Boston, but I would love to hear about other places like that in the US.
San Francisco
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Fishing gear accounts for an alarming amount of plastic in oceans (2021)
61–70 of 328 posts
Re: Fishing gear accounts for an alarming amount of plastic in oceans (2021)
#62To place this in context, it's 50,000 tons/year of fishing waste, versus 200,000 tons/year of microplastics from car tires: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/14/car-tyre... Further, microplastics enter the ecosystem far easier than the bulky big plastic from fishing gear, so the tire microplastics should be far more concerning to people. It's really weird how cars get a pass for so much. Try to live a…
Do you need recommendations on places in the US you can work in tech without a car and still enjoy the community? Because I can speak from many years of experience, it's not a difficult life to setup for yourself.
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Re: Fishing gear accounts for an alarming amount of plastic in oceans (2021)
#63To place this in context, it's 50,000 tons/year of fishing waste, versus 200,000 tons/year of microplastics from car tires: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/14/car-tyre... Further, microplastics enter the ecosystem far easier than the bulky big plastic from fishing gear, so the tire microplastics should be far more concerning to people. It's really weird how cars get a pass for so much. Try to live a…
It's really weird how cars get a pass for so much. It's really weird how trucks get a pass from people who don't give cars a pass. If tire wear is proportional to road wear, the majority of tire-originating microplastics is from semi trucks, not commuter sedans.
I don't find trucks and commercial vehicles getting a pass all that strange, they are far more essential than passenger vehicles.
I consider most roads and basically all highways as meant for them, passenger vehicles are the luxury.
Re: Fishing gear accounts for an alarming amount of plastic in oceans (2021)
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait, the article you linked said he called manufacturers to get a range of daily production/market estimates of straw production. Hardly seems fair to say based on "nothing".
The kid estimated every American (all ~325 million) used nearly 2 straws per day. It's just such an absurdly unrealistic number. I don't know how we can accept he conducted actual investigative research at the age of 9, particularly when the data is so wildly off from reality, no records were kept, and he can't even name some of the companies he supposedly based his "data" off of. So yes... entirely made up.
That... Doesn't strike me as absurd. When I was a kid, I'd definitely use more than that.
McDonalds serves like 70M meals a day alone. Customers often grab a couple straws and use one. Ask anyone who has worked fast food -people take three straws and discard two all the time.
If you include straws like those little red coffee straws and juice box straws I can absolutely see hitting 500M.
The number of at least 100M, so he got the order of magnitude right, I'm sure.
Re: Fishing gear accounts for an alarming amount of plastic in oceans (2021)
#65To place this in context, it's 50,000 tons/year of fishing waste, versus 200,000 tons/year of microplastics from car tires: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/14/car-tyre... Further, microplastics enter the ecosystem far easier than the bulky big plastic from fishing gear, so the tire microplastics should be far more concerning to people. It's really weird how cars get a pass for so much. Try to live a…
Cars don’t get a free pass.
But literally any time someone says X is a big source of pollution, someone always screams that Y is worse so let’s stop focusing on X.
Then when people talk about Y, forget it, here’s Z and it’s the real problem.
They’re all bad. It’s not like there’s one single person on earth who only has time to focus on one single problem. There’s billions.
Re: Fishing gear accounts for an alarming amount of plastic in oceans (2021)
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn’t that flawed logic? If you’re proposing that one of these issues can be fixed with more infrastructure, then couldn’t either? Rail is nice.
Sure! Rail is nice, when the volume permits it. How would we supply the supermarket, though? A rail line would be unfeasible.
If we wanted to redesign all our infrastructure to minimize auto and truck miles, we’d probably try to replace long-haul trucking routes with routes that pick up from local rail depots.
Everyone would live near a train station (or in larger urban areas, light rail that connects to the train stations). There would be a mostly-separate freight network with depots near every population center. Trucks could be used to get goods from the depot to the store. Some long-haul routes would be needed to serve remote rural communities, and some high-priority stuff like mail delivery.
Re: Fishing gear accounts for an alarming amount of plastic in oceans (2021)
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
The kid estimated every American (all ~325 million) used nearly 2 straws per day. It's just such an absurdly unrealistic number. I don't know how we can accept he conducted actual investigative research at the age of 9, particularly when the data is so wildly off from reality, no records were kept, and he can't even name some of the companies he supposedly based his "data" off of. So yes... entirely made up.
That... Doesn't strike me as absurd. When I was a kid, I'd definitely use more than that. McDonalds serves like 70M meals a day alone. Customers often grab a couple straws and use one. Ask anyone who has worked fast food -people take three straws and discard two all the time. If you include straws like those little red coffee straws and juice box straws I can absolutely see hitting 500M. The number of at least 100M,…
Nobody cares how many straws you own... the (potential) issue was how many straws are discarded per day, and specifically how many made their way into waterways. It's no where near 500M - that is indeed an absurd number.
Being one order of magnitude right isn't sufficient here (he could have just as easily made up 999M and still be one order or magnitude right) - particularly when fabricated "data" was used to push for legislation that impacted so many people yet has had so little effect on the environment.
Additionally, this kind of stuff causes the public to lose faith in "science" and our legislators that push this type of agenda through.
Not one entity stopped to research the data themselves - they used a 9 year old's made up data to ram through laws. Really should give us all pause when considering new legislation.
Re: Fishing gear accounts for an alarming amount of plastic in oceans (2021)
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd love to hear these recommendations. I know you thrive without a car in New York and Boston, but I would love to hear about other places like that in the US.
Chicago is doable though the winters are brutal.
Car-free is the way to go within the city of Chicago and now that I live in Southern California, the car-free lifestyle is what I miss most (other than people).
It's hard to get out of town without a car. The commuter rail schedules are focused on people who live in the suburbs and commute to the city, so they aren't really an option. There's good public transit to the airports, however, so if you live car-free in Chicago, New York feels closer than Wisconsin in some ways.
Re: Fishing gear accounts for an alarming amount of plastic in oceans (2021)
#69It is so obvious, and has been known for years, yet the EU banned plastic straws because of the waste in the oceans, so now every drink tastes like a schoolbook. Well done EU...
> […] yet the EU banned plastic straws because of the waste in the oceans, so now every drink tastes like a schoolbook. Well done EU... Issues are not the Highlander: there can be more than one. Single-use plastics just happen to be a problem as well. And, for what it's worth, people who complain about paper straws remind me of sulky toddlers. Just FYI.
> And, for what it's worth, people who complain about paper straws remind me of sulky toddlers. Just FYI.
Banning plastic straws was a useless feel-good measure that raised costs and reduced quality of life (ever so slightly). It makes no difference to the ocean, as Western countries don't have rivers of trash flowing directly into it, and straws are an insignificant amount of plastic relative to everything else we use.
So I'll complain readily about plastic straws because terrible legislation turns the majority center against the cause. We could have used that political capital and public support to make a real difference, but now we're worse off than where we started.
Re: Fishing gear accounts for an alarming amount of plastic in oceans (2021)
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd love to hear these recommendations. I know you thrive without a car in New York and Boston, but I would love to hear about other places like that in the US.
Chicago is doable though the winters are brutal.
Chicago winter mornings on the open air el station platforms puts hair on your chest.