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Scientifically this has been proven quite well, and people who aren't dumb notice as much - posh-er neighborhoods have terrible air quality in fall/winter eveni

Scientifically this has been proven quite well, and people who aren't dumb notice as much - posh-er neighborhoods have terrible air quality in fall/winter evenings because they all fire up their cozy fireplaces. If you can smell it on the street... well, that's ground level. Open windows and ventilation inlets are higher up and more affected. The thing is more that people don't want to hear it, like at all. These fireplaces are a big status symbol and considered totally green and environment-friendly because it's wood, right, so it's renewable, so has to be good. That they have no filters and terrible firing, resulting in exhaust that would make an 80s diesel tractor blush in shame, nobody cares. It's natural, so it's eco, so it's green, so it's good and it's cozy. So fuck off.

ethanbond 3y ago
FWIW I think the eco intuition is not very durable. I can’t imagine people holding onto that when confronted, rather it’s just something people don’t consider without it being brought up. But the coziness, positive emotional affiliation is definitely hard to overcome. Especially since it’s pretty much the smell and sound of bad burning itself that is so desirable.
- sneak 3y ago
  > I can’t imagine people holding onto that when confronted Try it sometime and be surprised! People round up a bunch of common retorts: the smoke goes up, it smells good, it’s an old tradition, thousands of years, etc. People think that smoke isn’t that bad for you if it doesn’t make you cough, because it doesn’t feel bad in the lungs. The fireplace delusion taught me a lot about myself and my own mind, and humans in general. We fucking LOVE to fool ourselves into rationalizing our own preferences.
  - ethanbond 3y ago
    No I am agreeing with you. I’m saying that the issue is not that they refuse to believe it’s bad when explained, it’s that even when they’re convinced it’s bad, they “net out” to keeping them due to all the positive affiliations despite believing the harms.

ethanbond 3y ago

FWIW I think the eco intuition is not very durable. I can’t imagine people holding onto that when confronted, rather it’s just something people don’t consider without it being brought up. But the coziness, positive emotional affiliation is definitely hard to overcome. Especially since it’s pretty much the smell and sound of bad burning itself that is so desirable.

sneak 3y ago
> I can’t imagine people holding onto that when confronted Try it sometime and be surprised! People round up a bunch of common retorts: the smoke goes up, it smells good, it’s an old tradition, thousands of years, etc. People think that smoke isn’t that bad for you if it doesn’t make you cough, because it doesn’t feel bad in the lungs. The fireplace delusion taught me a lot about myself and my own mind, and humans in general. We fucking LOVE to fool ourselves into rationalizing our own preferences.
- ethanbond 3y ago
  No I am agreeing with you. I’m saying that the issue is not that they refuse to believe it’s bad when explained, it’s that even when they’re convinced it’s bad, they “net out” to keeping them due to all the positive affiliations despite believing the harms.