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I like this roundup [1] as it hammers the point home with tons of observations across cultures, times, contexts, and methods of analysis. For instance, differen
by npunt 3y ago
I like this roundup [1] as it hammers the point home with tons of observations across cultures, times, contexts, and methods of analysis. For instance, different cultures phased out lead gas at different times, and their subsequent crime charts were offset by the equivalent years.
[1]: https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/02/an-updated-lead-crime-roundup-for-2018/ https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/02/an-updated-le...
- Gigachad 3y agoThe car and its consequences has been a disaster for society. Even today we are pumping so many toxins in to the air to deliver a slower, less efficient, and more expensive form of transport. And it's not a problem that EVs or self driving cars can solve since a huge amount of the pollution comes from tires.
- hodgesrm 3y ago> Even today we are pumping so many toxins in to the air to deliver a slower, less efficient, and more expensive form of transport. Slower than what?
- mwint 3y ago[flagged]
- rfrey 3y agoAh yes, the infamous "they", who are plotting to take away your cars, your guns, and your hamburgers.
- CrazyPyroLinux 3y agoI mean, yeah - They're pretty enthusiastically telling us that's what they want to do. It's not a conspiracy theory if they're actually advertising it...
- CapstanRoller 3y agoRailfans in high places?
- adrianN 3y agoTry vacationing a couple of weeks in a city that isn't build around cars and has good public transport, maybe you'll understand. Tokyo is nice for example. Note that there still are cars in Tokyo, nobody is banning cars.
- Gigachad 3y agoWalkable cities + public transport. When I had a car it used to take me a minimum of 10 minutes to get anywhere. Cars have spaced out everything so far that over all we spend so much more time traveling. Now I live in a walkable area and almost everything I need is a few minutes away on foot, or a 20 minute train trip to the main city area.
- mtalantikite 3y agoI swear that living in NYC for nearly two decades has made me incapable of making a grocery list and shopping like pretty much everyone else in the country (only slightly kidding). I just walk down the street and grab what I need. I did just miss the 6 train by 15 seconds and am standing on the platform as I write this, which I guess is annoying? I’ll take it over driving in traffic though.
- muglug 3y agoWhenever I leave NYC and go anywhere else in the US, walking a mile feels like an act of silent rebellion.
- Gigachad 3y agoHad a friend from Texas move near me in Australia and they have just been exhausted trying to keep up because they aren't used to walking. Walking here is the fastest and most convenient way to get around. By the time you get your car out and find parking, you could have already been there on foot. You'll observe that the rate of obesity is extremely low in the walkable areas which I really think is heavily because the people there live more active lifestyles just getting around day to day.
- kortilla 3y agoThe rate of obesity is low because of survivorship bias, nothing more, nothing less. For obese and/or disabled people, living in New York is an absolute nightmare if you can’t afford public transit. Despite loving the city amenities, culture, nightlife, one of my family members had to give up and leave NYC because he couldn’t afford cabs everywhere and hated showing up to events late and sweat-soaked otherwise.
- maxerickson 3y agoIn lots of places the tailpipe emissions of a modern car are cleaner than the air. CO2 is a pollutant, but it's not a toxin when the concentration is low and oxygen is available.
- swader999 3y ago[flagged]
- Terr_ 3y ago"I'll take 'facile and reductive statements' for $100 please, Alex." CO2 is demonstrably emitted as a pollutant, but it's only a fertilizer in pretty poetic sense: Plant growth is bottlenecked by other factors.
- CapstanRoller 3y agoBy that logic, so is ammonia. Care to take a big huff off a farmer's anhydrous ammonia tank?
- 8bitsrule 3y agoSo is rape .... https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/12/more-co2-in-the-atmosphere-hurts-key-plants-and-crops-more-than-it-helps/ https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/12/more-co2-in-the-a...
- stephen_g 3y agoAnd water is essential for life, so that must mean it’s impossible to drown, right? Funny that people who say things like this and “CO2 is only 0.04% of the air” don’t want to try injecting 0.04% of their blood volume of hydrogen cyanide and seeing if such a tiny amount of something can have an effect…
- adrianN 3y agoThat conveniently ignores the non-tailpipe emissions, for example dust from tires and brake pads. I also suspect that it's only true in the lab, I have the pleasure of cycling through many clouds of noxious soot from supposedly modern cars whose owners just happen to press the throttle harder than what the NEDC requires.
- Willish42 3y agoThanks, this is way more thorough than the links I was able to find / select from a quick search at the time. If anything, I think I've accidentally experienced a lesser case of [Cunningham's Law](https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law), where the veracity of the hypothesis is arguably pretty clear-cut and I just lacked the evidence, and the internet is obliged to correct/help in that regard!
- derbOac 3y agoThe prediction about lead and terrorism is pretty bold, but would be interesting if it were proven true: https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/12/prediction-terrorism-middle-east-will-decline-half-between-2020-and-2040/ https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/12/prediction-te... I'm skeptical because of the number of factors involved in something as complex as terrorism but I give credit to the author for thinking of it and openly predicting it.