this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2024
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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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Car tires shed a quarter of all microplastics in the environment. Urgent action is needed (phys.org)
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Electric cars are not THE solution.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Polluting - I don't think so, except they're 2 stroke engines, which are rare, nowadays. These days you see even more and more electric bikes.

Inefficient - People often go 2, 3, 4 people on a bike that uses maybe 3 l/100km (78 MPG) or pull trailers wich stuff loaded, while using less space than a car.

Unsafe - totally less safe for the people on the vehicle. I don't know about pedestrians. However, a lot of the accidents happen, because poor education to get the license, if any; hardly any law enforcement and poor vehicle maintenance.

Noisy - not more than a ICE car. Some motorbikes here have broken exhausts, which make them noisy, but that again is a lacking law enforcement and maintenance issue.

I am aware, however, that driving 2 wheel vehicles in ice and snow is not a wise idea, so while it works in SEA, it would be different in colder climates.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Maybe where you live 2 strokes are rare, but when we are talking cheap, it's always 2 stroke. Especially the example the other person gave, Asia is full of 2 stroke engines, all super noisy and poluting. Living near a dense traffic street in Asia is a very interesting form of torture for anyone who enjoys clean air or peace and quiet.

Hell, even where I live, they are mildly popular and very hard to miss when one goes by. To move to clean and quiet alternatives can't come soon enough.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Thank goodness that cheap e-bike motors and solar panels are available to these markets.

Someone with a little bit of intelligence can retrofit an e-bike motor on a pushbike, put some solar panels on their roof, connected to some trusty Lead-Acid batteries in their hovel and they can recharge their e-bike or cargo-bike.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Cheap is a very relative term and I doubt you can reach an equivalent gas powered two stroke on the same budget.

In Asia they use these vehicles as their main mode of transportation, meaning they also need to have power, travel far and carry their family or shopping. Where I live people use these vehicles on the highway and e-bikes have legal restrictions and documentation. Good luck reaching the minimum required speed with an unlicensed self built ebike.