this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2023
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Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.

As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades: Graph of temperature as observed with significant warming, and simulated without added greenhouse gases and other anthropogentic changes, which shows no significant warming

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world: IPCC AR6 Figure 2 - Thee bar charts: first chart: how much each gas has warmed the world. About 1C of total warming. Second chart: about 1.5C of total warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases, offset by 0.4C of cooling from aerosols and negligible influence from changes to solar output, volcanoes, and internal variability. Third chart: about 1.25C of warming from CO2, 0.5C from methane, and a bunch more in small quantities from other gases. About 0.5C of cooling with large error bars from SO2.

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Tiny Electric Vehicles Pack a Bigger Climate Punch Than Cars (www.nytimes.com)
submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Maybe. It really depends on your location. Biking on the only road out of my neighborhood would be all but suicide because there is no shoulder, it is high traffic, and places without enough forward visibility for cars to react in some places. It isn't due to lack of demand. I see plenty of people on bicycles in areas where it is reasonably safe to do som In other places I have lived, I agree with you.

I really hate blanket generalizations like:

There is risk, but it's still a lot lower than the risk associated with inactivity.

That also assumes that the person is inactive otherwise. Some people make an effort to exercise, others have physically demanding jobs. It also assumes the level of risk where it will vary quite a bit depending on location.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

places without enough forward visibility for cars to react in some places

Sounds like it lacks enough traffic calming to keep cars going a reasonable speed with the given visibility, even without accounting for bikes.

A protected (concrete, not flex poles) bike lane would do it some good simply by narrowing the road enough for people to drive properly on it.

Doesn't change your situation now though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I've been around enough people and places to have seen that most Americans aren't exercising and to know that most of the places people have told me aren't good to ride actually are. There really are some people who do exercise, and some roads which aren't safe, but that's usually not what's going on.

I'd describe the usual as a combination intimidation, fear, and concern about social isolation for doing something unusual.