bitsplease

joined 1 year ago
[–] bitsplease@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Of course it won't fix climate change in one go, but doing so would remove a major fossil fuel dependency for your average Joe and make them much more likely to vote against fossil fuels.

Put another way, how many people driving gas cars would vote in favor of heavy taxes on fossil fuel use?

Now, how many would vote that way if they personally didn't have any dependencies on fossil fuels?

Also, highway vehicles account for 1.5 billion tons of GHGs being emitted each year, that's 11% of the global yearly GHG emissions, so yeah, it definetely would "move the needle". In the US specifically it's as much as 20% of our nations emissions.

And yeah I already know the next argument "bUt YoUr JuSt UsInG fOsSiL fUeLs To ChArGe It" - except you're not necessarily, in my area (part of CA), you can choose to have 100% of your electricity provided by renewable sources for a small monthly premium ($18/month). Additionally in CA, all new homes are being built with solar power, which further increases your ability to charge without fossil fuels.

And in the areas that isn't true, it's at least getting groundwork laid down to make it true. An electric car can be powered by renewable energy, a fossil fuel car must be powered by fossil fuels.

There are a lot of steps to solving climate change beyond "buy an electric car", and you're right that industrial and commercial pollution accounts for the majority, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be pushing on all fronts.

We've already waited way too long to act, we can't afford as a species to say "well, I'm not going to change my car until the industrial polluters get their shit together", we have to push in Every possible direction, all at the same time to make progress, and electric cars overtaking fossil fuel cars is a big part of that.

There's a lot of work to be done globally until electric cars are 100% green, both in terms of power infrastructure and the processes to create them, but there's no way forward with gas cars, so we need to start moving over as a society now, phasing out the production of gas cars with electric

[–] bitsplease@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Remember kids, if you're not solving climate change entirely in one single step, there's no point in trying.

Seriously, what a brain dead argument lol

[–] bitsplease@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Gatekeepers got tired of being (rightly) made fun of, so they made a new meme format that makes them seem justified

[–] bitsplease@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If actual aliens are here it basically means travelling faster than light is possible.

Not just possible, but dirt cheap, otherwise why would they be constantly dropping down into Earth to see what we're up to.

Really, the whole notion is a bit silly when you think about it rationally. If a society was advanced to the point of cheap FTL (which, I feel the need to point out, isn't just "advanced technology" but "technology that operates in complete defiance to our most fundamental understandings of physics"), why on earth would they be dipping into the actual atmosphere, doing landings, or flying by private aircraft? Surely a society with such breathtaking technology could drop a single spy satellite into orbit and get every piece of info they could possibly want about us, especially now that we're in the digital age.

I have no doubt that alien life of some sort is out there, very possibly it's even prolific (though that doesn't seem to be the case based on our admittedly limited observations of exoplanets), but there's no rational basis for thinking that an advanced alien society would have either the means, nor the motivation, to constantly pop down to earth to screw with pilots, farmers, etc.

[–] bitsplease@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Or when they extropolate from America the country being shit, to every individual American being shit for having the audacity to have been born here.

Most of us would also rather it wasn't like this, but our families, friends, and livelihoods are here, so generally speaking it's not practical to just up and leave. And our political system is to broken for us to really fix via voting

Trash on the country all you want, I'll join in with you - but don't blame the folks who are just trying to live the best we can in this fucked up country

[–] bitsplease@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Most would agree with your point - right up until you suggest that having an "uncorrupt government" is remotely possible.

Pretty much the same level of unrealistic idealism as folks who think it's remotely possible to transition a state to communism without it turning into authoritarianism.

There, now I've pissed off everyone lol

Edit: Except, I guess for the hardcore capitalists, but I assume those guys are all too dumb to read, so no point, really 🤷