are they? If you add their utility and total negative externalities they are essentially un-useful. We have the technology now to phase them out over the next 10-20 years. All that is lacking is the political will.
Problem is the total accumulated CO2 already there. We would need to be net zero yesterday to mitigate imo.
Capitalistic institutions haven't been serious or motivated enough to make any real effort. They'll make up their next cop-out like carbon credits or whatever
the first step to caring for a injury is to stop further harm. a combat medic covers their patient's wounds from falling dust and dirt by placing their body between - then evacuates the patient to safer location.
we have to stop the bullshit uses of petrochemicals. the flagrant waste, the waste for recreation, the waste for convenience, toys etc.
plastics for food, plastics for medical tech, industrial use and exploration - force everything else to reusables.
the best way to overcome the enormous build-up already accumulated IS TO STOP ADDING TO IT IMMEDIATELY.
You're acting like there aren't affordable used EVs that would function perfectly well for people in a position to have an EV
My 2018 Leaf is more than sufficient for the majority of commuters and is cheaper than last year's Honda Civic. Oh and bonus, a lot of them just had their batteries swapped under warranty due to a manufacturing defect and have a fresh new battery and warranty!
So, assuming someone either has the ability to charge at home or close to (I lived with this car in an apartment complex for a year so yes even that is possible, if not annoying) then they should be able to locate an affordable EV if that's their desired engine type
That should absolutely be against the sub rules, if you post a paywalled link you should also be required to post the archive link.
Or, just post with the archive link to begin with.
I haven't experienced the NY times paywall in awhile. I don't mean to sound lectury but there really is no reason to not use Firefox desktop or mobile with ublock origin. It is so much nicer of a web experience, and NY times has some nice articles.
Definitely worth thinking about for the future. Right now it would fuck over a whole lot of working class people. We need to get robust public transit up and running.
it would fuck over our entire economy and infrastructure. it's an asinine question to pose by itself, in a vacuum.
But we will have to get there, especially for the optional shit - cruise ships, motorcross, snow-mobiling, pleasure / recreation boats and RVs - if it's optional, aka, not absolutely necessary to the business of righting the ecosystem, it goes.
Let people cruise and moto and snowmobile on renewably derived electricity if they absolutely HAVE to have these luxuries, but no more 2-strokes spewing unburned gas into the ecosystem, no more 'environmental cruises' to the arctic where these fucks burn bunker oil constantly in the last 'mostly untouched' ecosystem on the planet.
The only question is: how serious are we, as a species, about stopping the pain?
Because at the rate we're going, we won't - and will doom our species and ecosystem, and it's coming QUICK. 1.5c is gone already lol. The mountains are not regaining snowpack. the AMOC is wobbling. Once that goes, large parts of the ecosystem will falter.
So can we quickly do the mature thing and put away the toys, and struggle with a single focus on saving ourselves?
Or will we let the dipshits and assholes vroom vroom their way to our collective destruction, because we decided long ago to let the stupids drive the bus?
The entire industry employs a great number of people. It’s not so simple to just ban all fossil fuels (even if it is what we need to do) and leave millions out of work. Think of how many industries rely on fossil fuels as well, just to move things or people around. All those jobs go bye-bye overnight too.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t ban fossil fuels, but the fallout from doing so needs to be addressed before it becomes a problem in the first place.