I wish that 20 years ago, we had a serious discussion about emissions requirements. Catalytic converters increase CO2 output through a variety of direct and indirect means, but they reduce all other types of emissions. It would have been nice if we could have had an adult discussion about letting off some of those requirements in order to reduce CO2.

Not much point now.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Honestly I think they made the right call wrt catalytic converters. The stuff that they turn into CO2 is a much more potent and urgent threat than the CO2.

The CO2 problem should have been solved with fuel efficiency, but as we've discovered here, it wasn't. After realizing the unintended consequences of their laws, they refused to go back to them and admit there was a problem, because admitting means they were wrong and they can't have that.

(Also passengers cars aren't really the problem. At least they're small fish, that we've been tricked into focusing on so that the real polluters can avoid scrutiny).

[–] SocialMediaRefugee 1 points 5 months ago

The problem was the other pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides, which accumulate in urban areas and greatly contribute to air pollution (i.e. smog) and lung issues. Carbon monoxide gets oxidized to CO2 but this is a good thing.