3 ms·

I primarily ride a bike and have been low-car since college in the early 2000's... hell, I've been a mod on /r/bicycling since around 2010. I took some Earth Sc

by scoofy 3y ago

I primarily ride a bike and have been low-car since college in the early 2000's... hell, I've been a mod on /r/bicycling since around 2010. I took some Earth Sciences back when the professors just assumed people would act rationally and care about their climate impact. That seems adorably naive in retrospect. I think one of the biggest issues... as is always... is the housing shortage. I'm currently trying to find new housing that is low-car friendly (my lifestyle), and also dog-friendly (my gf's lifestyle). Yes, we live in the bay area, but this applies to every single major tech hub in America. If we want to get a two bedroom unit, that's both safely bikeable to central SF, but also a few blocks from a dog park, we're going to probably need to pay about $4000 per month. That's about $50,000 per year; it's about 40% of the SF median household income. As much as I hate the way our sprawl is infecting climate change... the real reason sprawl has taken over is that we've blocked urban housing construction for 70 years. I hardly blame younger folks for their exurban lifestyles at this point. I can barely afford being an urbanist, over 40, without having roommates... and I consider myself fairly well off. And I'm counting down the days until I say 'fuck it' and just move to Milwaukee or Pittsburgh where I could basically retire (not at all a slight, just the extremely rare affordable urbanist cities). I can't imagine what it would be like with kids. If you pretend to care about the environment, you need to be at your city council meetings demanding high-density, mixed-use, housing in your neighborhood.

CalRobert 3y ago
Hear hear! Another option is to move somewhere better. Happy to discuss emigration.
- scoofy 3y ago
  I would very much consider immigration to western Ireland, Scotland, or the Netherlands if I hadn't built a life for myself in Northern California. As of now, the only reasonably affordable (not actually affordable) areas to live in with a temperate climates are in parts of Sonoma and Humbolt Counties, and Salinas. Any serious move would take some convincing, especially with a partner who is from the area. As someone who prefers the cool fog to warm sun, there aren't a lot of friendly climate zones friendly that don't involve the pacific northwest, but that's a tough sell to normal folks that think grey skies are unpleasant. As someone pretty much fatalistic about stopping climate change, I think the fortunes may favor the pacific northwest over Northern Europe in the next 50 years. It's an awkward gamble to make, but it's one that takes a lot more than just weather into account.
  - CalRobert 3y ago
    In the Irish midlands now (came from California) but working on a move to NL.
    - scruple 3y ago
      Just curious, because I daydream about doing these sorts of things and consider the same places. Do you have a family with you?
      - CalRobert 3y ago
        Email is in my bio if you want to chat. I do, but when moving here it was just my wife (then gf) and I on working holiday visas. Ireland is wonderful in many respects but also a deeply frustrating place, it's extremely car-dependent outside the middle of Dublin and perhaps what's harder is that most people see that as fine. Climate breakdown is viewed as a far away problem for other people, and rural communities can be insular. I have heard that some areas in Clare and West Cork are transforming, though. That being said, I live in a beautiful house on 3.5 acres a 15 minute bike ride from the train station and we want to move to the Netherlands so our kids can have actual freedom before learning to drive. Also a lot more jobs on climatebase.org are in NL (and DE), they're never in Ireland.

by scoofy 3y ago

CalRobert 3y ago

Hear hear! Another option is to move somewhere better. Happy to discuss emigration.

scoofy 3y ago
I would very much consider immigration to western Ireland, Scotland, or the Netherlands if I hadn't built a life for myself in Northern California. As of now, the only reasonably affordable (not actually affordable) areas to live in with a temperate climates are in parts of Sonoma and Humbolt Counties, and Salinas. Any serious move would take some convincing, especially with a partner who is from the area. As someone who prefers the cool fog to warm sun, there aren't a lot of friendly climate zones friendly that don't involve the pacific northwest, but that's a tough sell to normal folks that think grey skies are unpleasant. As someone pretty much fatalistic about stopping climate change, I think the fortunes may favor the pacific northwest over Northern Europe in the next 50 years. It's an awkward gamble to make, but it's one that takes a lot more than just weather into account.
- CalRobert 3y ago
  In the Irish midlands now (came from California) but working on a move to NL.
  - scruple 3y ago
    Just curious, because I daydream about doing these sorts of things and consider the same places. Do you have a family with you?
    - CalRobert 3y ago
      Email is in my bio if you want to chat. I do, but when moving here it was just my wife (then gf) and I on working holiday visas. Ireland is wonderful in many respects but also a deeply frustrating place, it's extremely car-dependent outside the middle of Dublin and perhaps what's harder is that most people see that as fine. Climate breakdown is viewed as a far away problem for other people, and rural communities can be insular. I have heard that some areas in Clare and West Cork are transforming, though. That being said, I live in a beautiful house on 3.5 acres a 15 minute bike ride from the train station and we want to move to the Netherlands so our kids can have actual freedom before learning to drive. Also a lot more jobs on climatebase.org are in NL (and DE), they're never in Ireland.