Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What fossil fuels are doing to our oceans

newhumanist.org.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 183 posts

Re: What fossil fuels are doing to our oceans

#91

Post by pilsetnieks »

cpprototypes wrote: post #27

I wish some billionaire would start a chain of carbon neutral gas stations. I wouldn't mind paying more for gas if I knew it was carbon neutral. There are several ways the gas could be carbon neutral, either through production (solar/wind into fuel creation) or offsets (plant trees or carbon sequestration). Instead of slowly trying to change our transportation infrastructure to EV, which will take decades, this could…

Even if it would succeed and a significant people would be willing to pay more, without regulation you cannot know that it is really carbon neutral instead of the billionaire owner pocketing the difference. And once you get around to regulations, a carbon tax is a much more sensible proposal.

Re: What fossil fuels are doing to our oceans

#92

Post by adrianN »

qbaqbaqba wrote: post #88
TeMPOraL wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see people mentioning things like "become a vegetarian" or "bike to work", but those are easy and neglible-impact things. Sure, they'd have a huge effect if half of the population suddenly adopted them, but that's not going to happen - so just going vegetarian yourself and calling it a day is not really helping anything. What I'd love to see is a list of high-impact work one could use their skills to help with. May…

I have some doubts about becoming vegetarian: soya cultivation has a huge negative impact on rain forests and on farmers. I prefer to obtain meat from local farmers that use traditional methods - don't abuse antibiotics and use locally grown pasture.

A large part of the soy is being fed to livestock.

Re: What fossil fuels are doing to our oceans

#93

Post by mverwijs »

anticodon wrote: post #60
anotherturn wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To make a dent I suspect becoming a vegetarian isn't enough - you'd have to become an effective-evangelical vegetarian. So, given that fear and shock tactics are failing - how do I convince the world (or a sizeable portion of it) to become vegetarian? I heard a podcast recently about a guy working to produce real meat from plant matter. This would probably be an effective solution. By spending time otherwise used for…

I'm a vegetarian myself, although for another reason: I don't want living beings to be tortured and killed for my food. But I find is that vegetarian propaganda is many times so disgusting and based on lies that it's probably going to turn people away from vegeterian food. Some vegeterians and vegans are obnoxious bigots and their efforts are generating opposite result - people start hating vegeterians and vegeterian…

I know. Lately I've been realizing the enormity of the fact that of all the planets we've found this one is the only one where life flourished.

How then can we possibly take the killing of life so lightly?

Re: What fossil fuels are doing to our oceans

#94

Post by gambiting »

qplex wrote: post #81
anotherturn wrote: post #10

It's not really enough to read and upvote, but I'm at a loss as to what I can personally can do about this. So in the spirit of the askhn "how would you turn around Twitter" - let's apply the same thinking to this: "how would you fix the oceans "? There must be some practical steps that one or many of the hn audience can execute?

Consume less. Don't buy useless things. Don't drive a car. Don't fly. Buy your electricity from a sustainable source. Eat less meat. Try to get other people to do the same. I find it's hard to do most of these things, and I don't really have much hope that people will change their habits. Most people don't even realise that they live in an illusion of reality where "everything is possible, you just have try hard enou…

Sure, I try to do that, and then I realise that just one US state is burning off millions of dollars worth of natural gas per day[0] , purely because it's too cheap to make it worth capturing. Or I go back to my home country and see people burning rubbish and mud coal and realise I can't breathe in winter and the snow is black/grayish.

So you know, at some point you think to yourself - why would I stop driving my Euro 6-compliant, modern, very efficient car, that is extremely heavily taxed to offset pollution, to make....what difference? I know if a million other people made the same choice it would make a difference, but it's the same as telling someone who is already leading a very considerate, very heavily taxed lifestyle that they should do their part too, while their neighbour is clearly burning plastic in their front yard, and no one cares.

It's a weird one, because I don't want to say "it's ok for me to pollute a little bit, because there are people who pollute lots", but damn, it is super hard to justify making life even more expensive for myself.

[0] http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-dakota-gas-flaring-20140...

Re: What fossil fuels are doing to our oceans

#95

Post by adrianN »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #77
anotherturn wrote: post #10

It's not really enough to read and upvote, but I'm at a loss as to what I can personally can do about this. So in the spirit of the askhn "how would you turn around Twitter" - let's apply the same thinking to this: "how would you fix the oceans "? There must be some practical steps that one or many of the hn audience can execute?

I see people mentioning things like "become a vegetarian" or "bike to work", but those are easy and neglible-impact things. Sure, they'd have a huge effect if half of the population suddenly adopted them, but that's not going to happen - so just going vegetarian yourself and calling it a day is not really helping anything. What I'd love to see is a list of high-impact work one could use their skills to help with. May…

Data centers use a lot of power. Make data centers more efficient, for example by improving GCC or the Linux Kernel, and you can save a chunk.

Don't write your billion-user apps in Python, use a more efficient language like Rust or Go. Don't make 10MB webpages where 100kb would also suffice.

But I think useful change can only be made using political means. Write your representatives and tell them how you feel. Vote for politicians who want to change things.

Re: What fossil fuels are doing to our oceans

#96

Post by anotherturn »

qbaqbaqba wrote: post #84
anotherturn wrote: post #10

It's not really enough to read and upvote, but I'm at a loss as to what I can personally can do about this. So in the spirit of the askhn "how would you turn around Twitter" - let's apply the same thinking to this: "how would you fix the oceans "? There must be some practical steps that one or many of the hn audience can execute?

Perhaps you can write more efficient code? Use HTML instead of JS when you can? Don't force people to buy a new phone/computer every x years?

First I laughed, then I thought. Perhaps one could build something akin to Google Page Speed, but instead it provides a measure of green-friendliness? It detects expensive animations, overloading of javascript, etc. I reckon the React community wouldn't like it much though...

The question is - if the whole internet uses 10% less power, does it make enough of a difference given its growth rate?

Re: What fossil fuels are doing to our oceans

#97

Post by deepvibrations »

qplex wrote: post #81
anotherturn wrote: post #10

It's not really enough to read and upvote, but I'm at a loss as to what I can personally can do about this. So in the spirit of the askhn "how would you turn around Twitter" - let's apply the same thinking to this: "how would you fix the oceans "? There must be some practical steps that one or many of the hn audience can execute?

Consume less. Don't buy useless things. Don't drive a car. Don't fly. Buy your electricity from a sustainable source. Eat less meat. Try to get other people to do the same. I find it's hard to do most of these things, and I don't really have much hope that people will change their habits. Most people don't even realise that they live in an illusion of reality where "everything is possible, you just have try hard enou…

CONSUME LESS! I feel like that really is the key- A holistic approach is best- trying to be aware of the impact you have across the board. Eg. It's not much good being vegetarian if you're also drinking a few bottles of water from plastic bottles everyday. Preaching to others is not that effective, so leading by example is the only way in my opinion!

Re: What fossil fuels are doing to our oceans

#98

Post by parhurs »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #77
anotherturn wrote: post #10

It's not really enough to read and upvote, but I'm at a loss as to what I can personally can do about this. So in the spirit of the askhn "how would you turn around Twitter" - let's apply the same thinking to this: "how would you fix the oceans "? There must be some practical steps that one or many of the hn audience can execute?

I see people mentioning things like "become a vegetarian" or "bike to work", but those are easy and neglible-impact things. Sure, they'd have a huge effect if half of the population suddenly adopted them, but that's not going to happen - so just going vegetarian yourself and calling it a day is not really helping anything. What I'd love to see is a list of high-impact work one could use their skills to help with. May…

I would say those are hard and seemingly-neglible-impact things, and that's why the general populace don't do those sorts of things. I see a parallel with being afraid of flying but not driving; people are not very rational or good at assessing impact. There's no reason not to change our habits, further, there's a positive feedback loop for vegetarianism: more consumer, more products, more consumers.

If you want to apply your skills come up with ways to help people change their habits. Better mass transit (ride-sharing etc.), new low-impact comsuption choices (e.g. digital goods/experiences), apps to help eat or live greener, better food production...

Re: What fossil fuels are doing to our oceans

#99

Post by martalist »

qbaqbaqba wrote: post #88
TeMPOraL wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see people mentioning things like "become a vegetarian" or "bike to work", but those are easy and neglible-impact things. Sure, they'd have a huge effect if half of the population suddenly adopted them, but that's not going to happen - so just going vegetarian yourself and calling it a day is not really helping anything. What I'd love to see is a list of high-impact work one could use their skills to help with. May…

I have some doubts about becoming vegetarian: soya cultivation has a huge negative impact on rain forests and on farmers. I prefer to obtain meat from local farmers that use traditional methods - don't abuse antibiotics and use locally grown pasture.

Soya beans aren't the only bean a vegetarian can eat. There are plenty of protein rich plants that will grow in almost every climate.

While I applaud your meat buying preferences, it would be an environmental disaster for every meat eater on earth to attempt to do the same.

Re: What fossil fuels are doing to our oceans

#100

Post by programmernews3 »

anotherturn wrote: post #10

It's not really enough to read and upvote, but I'm at a loss as to what I can personally can do about this. So in the spirit of the askhn "how would you turn around Twitter" - let's apply the same thinking to this: "how would you fix the oceans "? There must be some practical steps that one or many of the hn audience can execute?

Population control is the only long term option.

It has naturally happened in Japan and most of the West. China is now under control as well.

We now need to limit the artificial growth of Africa by stopping food programs and allowing balance to be reached.

Post reply on HN