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One of the motivating factors behind late 19th century horseless carriages was the reduction in pollution. It isn't at all accurate to say that horses don't po
by jsight 6y ago
One of the motivating factors behind late 19th century horseless carriages was the reduction in pollution.
It isn't at all accurate to say that horses don't pollute. In some respects their pollution is worse.
- fredfoobar 6y agoSir, are you telling us that instead of dealing with that small problem of pollution (https://www.workinghorsetack.com/catch-it-manure-bag-horse-diaper-p/bb2cb.htm https://www.workinghorsetack.com/catch-it-manure-bag-horse-d...), we created a whole new system for transport that requires you to build infrastructure from the ground up just to use them? I wonder why.
- jsight 6y agoYou think its a small problem? Imagine as many horses as cars in a dense urban environment, each one using those bags. Now how do you get all those bags out without garbage trucks? It isn't as easy a problem as our modern minds might imagine. Of course, cars as the savior is also an oversimplified narrative, but it was a fun one.
- fredfoobar 6y agoHave you seen the amount of waste we humans generate? have you seen the landfills?
- jsight 6y agoSure, but the horse era was before efficient solutions to those problems as well. Cf, "night soil" and the processes used to (try) to keep it from stinking up the city.
- bobthepanda 6y agoIt wasn’t a small problem. In 1880 there were 2.5 million pounds of poop per day in New York. https://blogs.lt.vt.edu/clay10/2019/11/11/horse-manure-in-manhattan-in-the-1880s/ https://blogs.lt.vt.edu/clay10/2019/11/11/horse-manure-in-ma... In 1880 NYC’s population was 2 million. Today there are 23 million in the metropolitan area. We probably still wouldn’t have a good way of dealing with 25M+ pounds of poop a day. And at least garbage disposal is relatively orderly; horses just pooped everywhere.
- fredfoobar 6y agoAre you telling me that we've built a whole sewer system for human poop, but we'll be screwed by a few million pounds of decomposable horse manure?
- bobthepanda 6y agoThe poop problem is certainly made easier by the fact that the overwhelming majority of New Yorkers poop in toilets, in specially designated rooms, that are directly connected to the sewers. And the poop gets flushed out of the toilet immediately. We also don't generally make humans work without bathroom breaks. Decomposing poop takes time, and it's pretty awful to be around while it's happening. Also, for something to decompose into the ground, it needs to reach the ground, which it's not going to do if the street is paved.
- epx 6y agoMy SUV pollutes less than a dog, simply because I run it once a week or less. The dog, as a horse, must breathe, eat and poop 24x7. Animals generate CO2 too. And methane. To be short, saying that Bitcoin has the right of polluting while doing nothing useful in return because there are cars, is wrong.
- fredfoobar 6y agoI don't like where you're going with this. Please don't work in any climate policy think tanks.