Plastic bags, climate change, renewable energy,

hifiandmtb

Sphincter beanie
An excellent opinion piece:


Over the last decades, outbreaks of zoonotic infections like coronavirus have become more and more common. Scientists tell us the encroachment of cities on once pristine environments increases the chances of previously unknown viruses finding a human host. We might not know the exact cause of this particular outbreak but we’ve been repeatedly warned that ongoing deforestation and uncontrolled urbanism create the conditions for the spread of pathogens to which we have no resistance.

Covid-19 only kills a small proportion of those it infects – and still the global death toll from the pandemic stands at more than 4 million.
What happens if the next virus we release is more like Ebola, with a morbidity rate of over 60%?
...
Yet the leaders who can plan sporting events and business strategies years into the future seem incapable of grasping the desperate message from the world’s scientists: simply, we cannot continue in the same old way without unleashing unimaginable catastrophes. In the words of a leaked draft from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: “The worst is yet to come, affecting our children’s and grandchildren’s lives much more than our own.”
Fucking true, all of it.
 

goobags

Likes Dirt
Just recently the bike industry has drastically reduced the amount of plastic packaging, replacing it with paped-based stuff. :)
Ordered a box of 5 micron filters the other day, all came individually packed in mini card board boxes (and freighted from overseas). Now I have a box of 5 micron filters that are full of larger than 5 micron pieces of cardboard. In this scenario it is completely counter productive


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goobags

Likes Dirt
Probably the biggest difference an individual can make.
While I sit in my brand new home in a new estate while working in a coal mine, driving an ICE and looking forward to an overseas holiday. Most foreign states are pushing for more population growth, Australia included. How can one person in a first world country deciding not to procreate help? Apart from the fact that then at least my non existent kid won’t exist in a shitty world.

Don’t get me wrong I agree that population is the main control in emissions but it needs to be substantiated at a much higher lever than one individual ‘not having kids to save the world’ - it’s overly simplistic and a view seemly only taken by the highly educated. Much like me driving and EV vs ICE is going to save the world or using a paper straw instead of a plastic one (in a disposable cup of liquid sugar) is going to save the world.

Maybe I’m in a mood and keen for a few words or maybe I’m keen to be educated I haven’t decided yet.


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hifiandmtb

Sphincter beanie
A human existing locks in a certain amount of CO₂ emissions, the volume depends broadly on the country they are born in. Each human eats, travels, consumes.

Without the human, there's no emission. It's fairly simple.
 

goobags

Likes Dirt
A human existing locks in a certain amount of CO₂ emissions, the volume depends broadly on the country they are born in. Each human eats, travels, consumes.

Without the human, there's no emission. It's fairly simple.
Yes simple maths I get but not the point of the discussion. How do you actually get less people on the planet? Apart from pandemics


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PINT of Stella. mate!

Many, many Scotches
A human existing locks in a certain amount of CO₂ emissions, the volume depends broadly on the country they are born in. Each human eats, travels, consumes.

Without the human, there's no emission. It's fairly simple.
In which case, if there are no humans, is there really any point in earth? Animals aren’t sentient enough to be pondering such deep philosophical questions. They’re too busy trying to survive which is generally a futile effort in itself considering how many mass extinctions there have been before us homo-sapiens came along.

As for doing your bit by not having children, I’ll counter with the argument that while we’ve done an horrendous amount of damage to the planet, we’re also advanced enough as a species to be able to salvage it through technologies such as nuclear fusion, smarter, more efficient means of agriculture and geo-engineering. Maybe we might even be able to get some of us off this rock so that if an actual extinction level event such as a giant asteroid colliding with Earth (again), there would still be a small shred of humanity left to repopulate.

Unfortunately that’s going to require hard work and a lot of scientific and technical knowledge. Future generations are going to be doing the heavy lifting on that one and those born in countries with a high standard of education will have a head start on tackling the problems.
 

Elbo

pesky scooter kids git off ma lawn
I don't really buy that argument @hifiandmtb. Theoretically it stacks up, but if people who say they're not having kids to save the environment actually believed it, then we would be seeing more people checking out early, as terrible as that sounds.
 
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cokeonspecialtwodollars

Fartes of Portingale
In which case, if there are no humans, is there really any point in earth? Animals aren’t sentient enough to be pondering such deep philosophical questions. They’re too busy trying to survive which is generally a futile effort in itself considering how many mass extinctions there have been before us homo-sapiens came along.

As for doing your bit by not having children, I’ll counter with the argument that while we’ve done an horrendous amount of damage to the planet, we’re also advanced enough as a species to be able to salvage it through technologies such as nuclear fusion, smarter, more efficient means of agriculture and geo-engineering. Maybe we might even be able to get some of us off this rock so that if an actual extinction level event such as a giant asteroid colliding with Earth (again), there would still be a small shred of humanity left to repopulate.

Unfortunately that’s going to require hard work and a lot of scientific and technical knowledge. Future generations are going to be doing the heavy lifting on that one and those born in countries with a high standard of education will have a head start on tackling the problems.
Also humans
377986
 
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