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[–] 76 points 2 weeks ago (12 children)

Which would be a generally good idea if 99% of the country didn't require a car to do anything.

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  • [–] 25 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

    While i see the issue, there are also definitely habbits that can be changed. I lived in California for a few months and while i mostly cycled, other people in the house drove their car to the store to get breakfast, every single morning

    Now i am not pushing cycling on everyone but maybe make breakfast at home or combine the trip? Small changes? I am also not directly accusing you of anything, my european mind was just baffled by such habbits

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  • [–] 11 points 2 weeks ago

    Doing so would expose the lie at the heart of the neoliberal proposition — that if we gave up our dignity as workers, we would regain it ten times over as consumers.

    If you have to do gig work on top of your two conventional jobs, but you still have to be frugal? Well, then it starts to seem like maybe workers sold their rights away for nothing.

    The 99% doesn’t want to believe that. But more than that, the 1% really doesn’t want the 99% to believe that.

    You’re not wrong. But you’re also not going to see Americans change their thinking on that anytime soon.

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  • [–] [S] 10 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    Living in southern California messes with my head! Perfect weather for cycling and just being outside yet almost everyone just chooses to drive, even on trips 1/2 a mile away.

    Though maybe my head has been warped from visiting Europe multiple times but the American car brain cannot comprehend walking somewhere close. It takes more time looking for parking than actually just walking there, it drives me wild!

    Anyway I have stopped riding my bike a lot because the routes I take have no bike infrastructure and the drivers here have tried to kill me a few to many times. I usually just resort to Public transportation which disappoints me almost on a daily bases, mostly because I've been to Europe and seen what functional systems look like.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 weeks ago

    Growing up the nearest grocery store was 8 miles away down a highway with no bike lane and no sidewalks if you wanted to walk it. Cyclists get run over fairly often in the area. It's 98 degrees most of the summer. Better pedal fast if you want anything frozen to make it back home. Also there was no public transit option.

    Nearest restaurants were a bit further, but you could make it to a gas station in 3 miles.

    I live mostly in Germany now and it seems the vast majority of people can access a grocery store, a bakery, and a restaurant/café in a 20 minute walk at most. The few that cannot are at most 20 minutes away from a bus or train stop that will get them to a store.

    American infrastructure is nonexistent. We only build it for cars

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  • [–] [S] 18 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

    It's ironic that the country built on freedom forces you to own and drive a car if you want to participate in society. I remember getting my driver's license at 16 and feeling the freedom to finally go anywhere. That rose colored view faded away quickly when I was forced to sit in traffic 5/6 days a week going to school then work and it just never ends. I have no alternative, that's it until we die just sit in traffic with everyone. It's fucking dehumanizing, at least to me it is.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

    Right, and then you realize “I should have always had that freedom to go anywhere, but there was nothing in walking distance of my childhood home except for other people’s homes and my school.” And I was lucky to have school in walking distance.

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  • [–] [S] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 child)

    I think it's so much worse these days. I read and heard a few nightmare stories of parents getting in trouble for allowing their 10yr old kids outside WITHOUT SUPERVISION. Like that blows my mind, but I might be in the minority to think young kids should be able to survive outside unsupervised?

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    [–] 42 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

    Again a reference to communism, when the price increase is a direct result of unregulated capitalism.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

    The fact that you associate rationing to communism speaks for itself.

    I don't have problem with just communism itself, but so far the Marxist-Leninist version is the one that was implemented around the world and unfortunately it comes with totalitarianism and heavy corruption, which delivers the opposite of what it promised.

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  • [–] 29 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

    The best deals, the BIGGEST and BESTEST. Fucking cuck can't even negotiate himself out of an easy one. This is the wet paper bag training course, and he's flunking it magnificently.

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    [–] 25 points 2 weeks ago (11 children)

    Russia US doesn’t pay out for dead soldiers.

    Russia US rations gas.

    Russia US is down to the dregs of their munitions.

    Russia US tells lies about victory in war.

    Russia US targets civillian infrastructure.

    On and on. Trump is just another shitty dictator.

    Next on the list will be beating the shit out of people at the polls and jailing them for voting opposition, and I’m sure there’s more I’m missing.

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    [–] 22 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

    All that whining when gas still costs nothing in US.

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  • [–] [S] 8 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

    Yes, but Americans are spoiled and think gas should actually be $1/gallon. If it wasn't for the damn evil regulations and climate crap we would have cheap gas! Other countries just aren't doing capitalism as good as we are that's why we deserve the cheapest gas! I'm not defending it, I'm just pointing out my perspective when people complain to me about gas prices. I don't drive daily only on long trips so I'm disconnected from the prices usually.

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  • [–] 15 points 2 weeks ago (33 children)

    Gas prices? Skill issue, just don't buy it. I haven't bought any in years.

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  • [–] 32 points 2 weeks ago (11 children)

    If you buy food, you buy diesel. It's what's in the tractors and delivery trucks.

    This is why it's literally impossible for an American to live a two tonne CO2 lifestyle. Emissions are imbedded in the supply chains and government.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 weeks ago* (10 children)

    How much of that food emissions is from beef though? Like even if you insist on still eating meat if you were to change to pork/chicken it would reduce emissions a lot.

    Although might be right for Americans, they have 3x what we do here per capita. Should be easier for me if I just need to do around half of what the average person does to get under 2. So heat pump, eat minimal meat with plenty of grains and veg instead, cycle to work, probably already most of the way there.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

    Everything regarding Agriculture (not just in the US, look at how much of the russian harvest is just rotting on the fields this year because of the lack of fuel) is heavily dependent mostly on diesel fuel. All those large machines use lots of fuel, and they are used in every step - preparing the ground, fertilizing, planting and harvesting. The way the US is doing things, transportation also uses fuel for giant fleets of trucks for most of the distance - transportation by train exists, but suffers from decades of neglect and having to compete with subsidized fuel prices. If americans had to pay for fuel without externalizing costs, i'm sure that the train network would suddenly have enough resources to expand and do long overdue maintenance.

    Sure, cattle is a huge part of the problem, but the above process is CO2-heavy even in areas where it would not have to be.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    Do you have a source for this?

    I find that everything related to meat and fish production produces 13.78% of global emissions excluding transport ([wikipedia] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas_emissions_from_agriculture?wprov=sfti1)) or 53% of all agricultural emission, while the whole supply chain is 18% of agricultural emissions, thus 4.6% of total.

    So meat production is by far the driver of agricultural emission, even if obviously the whole chain could become cleaner.

    Additionally, all freight transport accounts for 30% of transport emissions, so a total of 6% of global emissions. So banning all camions would achieve half of what vegetarianism would achieve.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 weeks ago* (1 child)

    As i said, cattle is a huge part of the problem - i fully agree with you on that point. But the emissions are only one part of the equation: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_agriculture. The environmental effects of agriculture go much farther than their emissions, in many areas actively hindering reuptake of CO2 (or destroying CO2 binding capacity outright), or causing greenhouse gases to be emitted as a result of their actions (By heavily damaging / killing functioning ecosystems). These effects go much farther than anything that is discussed in the "official" count, and they don't disappear by becoming vegetarian/vegan. The fuel addiction of our current agricultural practices only makes everything a lot worse.

    Edit: I just checked - land use is somewhat counted into the stats you posted, but things like damage to ecosystems by pesticides, plastic use and damaging waterways because fertilizer runoff i can't see anywhere.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

    Little is from beef. Beef, while the worst for emissions per calorie, is a tiny part of the overall food chain. Grains dominate.

    You will get closer, but I suspect your nation is simply too wealthy to hit the target. The UK is 2.25x higher than two tonnes per capita.

    It might be achievable if you cycle, never step foot on an aircraft, eat a local vegetarian diet, live in a small space heated with a heat pump, and buy solely used durable products. Again, there's too much carbon in the supply chain and government services like road maintenance

    Of course, you are miles ahead of the US.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 weeks ago

    Beef is like 40x the emissions of grain per kcal. Grains are also a lot of the overall value because they are uses as animal feed. Drop the need for animal feed and you significantly drop the need for grains.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 weeks ago (20 children)

    Nice privilege. A lot of the rest of us don't have a choice.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

    Nice privilege

    Oh yeah, so privileged to have grown up unable to afford to learn to drive a car

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  • [–] 7 points 2 weeks ago* (2 children)

    Yes, it is a privilege. I grew up in a rural area (about 60 miles away from the nearest city) with no access to public transportation or services. It would take FOUR HOURS to walk to my nearest friend's house. I also grew up dirt poor and couldn't afford driving school. So, I had to convince friends to show me how to drive, or get friends' parent to show me, and eventually during my senior year, I convinced one of my teachers to let me take the behind the wheel test in his car. All of this because without a license where I grew up, you're never going ANYWHERE. No job, no friends, no mobility to get out of a shitty rural town. So yes, to not have had to do all of that, that is indeed privilege

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  • [–] 14 points 2 weeks ago (11 children)

    Wait, isn't he supposed to be on the team that's trying to stop climate change?

    Or does he think it's safe to let his backroom deal persona out into the public now?

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  • [–] [S] 6 points 2 weeks ago (8 children)

    Yeah Newsom is an interesting character. Sometimes I don't know what he really stands for. He's been playing the "hate on Trump regarding everything" game for a while though so this is a continuation of that?

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  • [–] 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 child)

    Sounds like an opportunist. Someone who just says what he needs to get his way, but has no guiding principles.

    I can see how a message like this would sound coming from someone like Bernie Sanders, ie. high prices are squeezing regular people while oil companies bag the profit. Even if it's good for people to drive less from a climate perspective, it has to be done in a way that doesn't harm real people. But this guy just sounds like he's angling for political points with no concern for real issues. Would make a terrible president, so I guess he has high chances to become the Democratic nominee.

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  • [–] [S] 5 points 2 weeks ago

    Yup! The Democrats will definitely choose him as he is already controversial on the left! They truly are just controlled opposition for the Republican party at this point 😂

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  • [–] 11 points 2 weeks ago*

    Honestly gas rationing is a good thing, fuck oil, fuck burning into climate change. Gavin is not on the left but kinda conservative since he wants to drive gas prices down.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 weeks ago

    It’s clearly all Biden’s fault

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  • [–] 5 points 2 weeks ago

    Will this finally convince MAGAts that they fucked up?... nah they still think they are winning.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 weeks ago

    Well it's a good thing that every kid in the US is back in school, riding diesel buses to get there.

    And it's harvest season.

    No problem, drive less.

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