this post was submitted on 20 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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In a win for the climate, urban speed limits are dropping | Slower traffic speeds protect pedestrians and cyclists, helping more people access climate-friendly transportation. (yaleclimateconnections.org)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I get where you are coming from, but the percentage of people that are going to bike to work is already very small, if you add things like rain/snow/heat that number I'm guessing drops to basically zero. We need alternative transportation for those that cannot bike/walk to work everyday.

[–] grue 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nah, that's a myth. Places like the Netherlands prove that if you build the infrastructure, people will ride, even despite their shitty weather.

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

So I did some crude Googling and it looked like most of the Netherlands averaged 7-12 inches of snow each winter, where in WNY we can get more than that in a single storm. Covered bike tunnels all over a city might get you to and from someplace in the snow, but you can't make them door-to-door for everyone. And some people are just not going to be fit enough, or healthy enough, or just want to lug a bike through a 2 foot snow bank to get to a bike tunnel to ride to work and then park their bike in a snow bank and hope they can get it back out 8+hrs later.

[–] grue 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Okay, now do some crude Googling about how much snow Oulo, Finland gets.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Looks like the highest monthly average is January with just over 8 inches. How does this change anything I said?

Edit Contrast this with Buffalo, NY that has a seasonal average of 104 inches over the last 10 years.

Edit #2 Just read this piece from a couple years ago. My main take away is that it is still a small percentage of bikers overall still, but they are working on it (which is good!). It also specifically states that the city was designed around biking being a bigger priority than cars, which is how all the debating in this post started. I think we all agree this is what is needed before we are going to push any majority away from cars, as without the infrastructure and making it a viable alternative we are never going to get there in the US at least.

[–] bigschnitz 1 points 1 year ago

What do you think the initial capital cost of a semi sheltered bike path is compared to a road? What about operational expenses between the two?

The reality is we could very easily have sheltered bike paths and would likely save substantial money compared to maintaining and salting roads all the time.