As a counterpoint to this. Americans travel more now than they ever have in our history and I'd say culturally we are not significantly more open-minded or charitable as a whole.
59
These Nonprofits Are Creating a Solar Punk Future for South Seattle, Today | South Seattle Emerald
(southseattleemerald.com)
It's strange that they didn't include the food offset by the ebike though. This link tries to give a comparison between the two accounting for a typical European diet (which is also far more sustainable than the typical American diet).
https://www.bikeradar.com/features/long-reads/cycling-environmental-impact/
A person riding a bike has to consume extra food to burn energy in their muscles to propel them. The energy has to come from somewhere. There are CO2 emissions associated with producing food.
6
European consumer groups hit out at airlines for ‘greenwashing’
(www.businesstravelnewseurope.com)
Imagine upping the size, running the vacuums on renewables and automating it though. You could distribute farm fresh veggies to the doorstep of everyone in an entire city. I think that'd be solarpunk as hell.
You can read more about the fascinating history here: https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/pneumatic-tubes.pdf
Credit: https://hachyderm.io/@miah
I'm a pretty visible positive example I'd say. My objective is to provide reminders to reframe carnism as socially stigmatized. I think this mostly works because a lot of my friends are vegan, but there are a few "bros" who rationalize why they don't need to change.
It sounds a lot like you want us to be silent so you don't have to think about it.
Most people intellectually understand that torturing and killing animals is wrong and they don't want to do it. But they can put it into the back of their minds unless the vegans in their life remind them of what they look like to us.
And personally, I firmly believe that getting those little reminders from my friends added up over years for me until I realized it was worth it to make the change.
Yeah, this is pretty much exactly what I do. People get uncomfortable for a second, but I feel like I have to remind them what their actions look like from my perspective. I've realized that if I don't make jokes, they just never think about it!
Dang, that is nice. I'm guessing that's because the French grid has a lot of nuclear?
Flying from Stockholm to Hamburg results in around 250kg of carbon dioxide emissions per passenger, according to calculation website EcoPassenger. By contrast, the C02 released by travelling via electric-powered train is just 26kg.
That's amazing. It's only about 1/3rd the emissions in the US, but the sleepers are sooooo expensive I've never been able to afford it.
But that's OK I'm fine in coach 😄
The challenge that isn't covered here is that the grandeur of Singapore is far far easier to achieve with authoritarian centralization than the anarchic style of solarpunk. And people are compelled by the grandeur of a large expensive project in different ways than the DIY scale.
So how can a ragtag group in SF or Berlin make something that captures imagination just as well as Singapore?
I'd argue that the absolute shift in biases aren't the measure of open-mindedness, and it's the rate of change that determines how open-minded you are. From that regard the second half of the 20th century was fairly close-minded about the unmitigated correctness of our institutions and our place in the world. I'd say the year 2020 was one of the most rapid periods of open-minded inquisitiveness in my lifetime and that was when everyone was stuck at home.