The memes of the climate

Vaping is an advantage compared to cigarettes sure, but it is still signifcantly worse than just breathing air and it still promotes consuming one of the most addictive substances, nicotine. It drains the health and wealth of its consumers and offers little more than a head rush and a habit in return.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not at all opposed to vaping as a stepping stone to quitting. I tried it myself for a little while one of the times I was trying to quit.

And, again, I do think that vaping is less dangerous than actually smoking. But best to quit all of it completely.

I think people need to PRACTICE quitting and I wish more people had this mentality. Assuming that you'll succeed at something so difficult the first of many times of trying to do it is unrealistic. It took me several attempts and taking a class about it to quit smoking.

"I couldn't climb the mountain the first time I tried with no practice or help, therefore I'm never trying again" is very defeatist. Quitting is a process and practicing quitting is completely acceptable. Learn what didn't work that time and develop strategies to deal with what didn't work.

I have a bunch of tips from the class I took that I still mostly remember. I wonder how much of that info is online.

I feel like the generally accepted wisdom on the issue is that quitting smoking is hard. Whichever one works for you is the best one.

For me, "harm reduction" was just a convenient excuse for not really trying... And, I eventually decided, again, this is my experience, not advice, but, like, eventually, every method of quitting will eventually be cold turkey, so I just went for it.

Personally I found the nicotine addiction is overstated. I never had any trouble making it through 8 hours of sleep without a cigarette, so my claim that I needed one every hour or two kinda seemed like bullshit. Also, if I was so hung up on nicotine addiction - nicotine starts declining in your system almost immediately, so, if I was smoking for 5 minutes of every hour, I was spending 55 minutes of every hour in nicotine withdrawal. That's.. dumb. That's a dumb way to live.

(I was also a heroin addict from when I was a teenager until my late 20s - and - at least heroin lasts a while. Nicotine is a garbage drug.)

In the end, smoking is a habit - and there's not much in the way of shortcuts to changing your habits - and it's especially hard when your enjoy it. There are better techniques and worse techniques, but no cure.

For me, when me and my wife added tiny little people to the world, I realized that they would prefer me to be alive, and I didn't want to make them sad, so I quit.

It's not just "steam" in vapes, there's also the chemicals used to vaporize the liquid, and of course the flavors themselves. I'm not a scientist but I can't imagine it's good for you. Breathing regular air in a big city isn't great for you - like, bacon causes cancer - we probably don't want to assume the best for directly inhaling inadequately studied chemicals

The only things EV's solve is emissions. They reduce emissions in cities which is great, and thanks to clean power plants (renewable and nuclear) help reduce overall emissions. But they are still cars, still take up space, they are heavier so cause more wear on the road surfaces and emit tire particles. I wouldn't say these are tiny issues.

If we have to use cars then yes, electric are better, but it's not the solution. The solution should aim at reducing use of the inefficient forms of transport in favor of mass transit or micro mobility.

Its moreso the environment that allows a car free life to feel possible does not exist in the majority of American cities.