I'm a fan of more bike lanes but the big improvement in air quality would come from gettign the worst 10% or so of poluting vehicles offf the road. Diesels are visibly the worst, some transport trucks look fine and then you'll see an outlier that looks like a 100 year old coal powered train, it's possible the driver doesn't even see it. Pick up trucks can be especially bad as well, sometimes on purpose.
I live somewhere blessed with generally great air quality. Cutting though what's in it for me complacency can be tough, as the saying goes "when all you've known is privilege, equality may feel like oppression". I agree that air quality may be a more immediately tangible change proposition to people living in areas with higher pollution. I lived in Denver for awhile and still remember the nightly weather report that always included an update on the local "brown cloud". The transition to unleaded fuel got rid of learning difficulty lead but still has many carcinogenic by-products of combustion. No safe dose.
One problem is that the car claims to be the solution for all the ills it causes. Polluted air? Buy an electric version and exercise indoors in a commercial gym. Other drivers dangerous? Buy a bigger car. Road clogged with too many cars? one more lane. Buy to solve maybe only works if you buy a bicycle or walking shoes and use them for transport (Bikes deliver what car ads only promise - Tom Flood). There is no way I could afford to live where I do if everyone in the household needed to have their own individual car. Hip pocket living costs are significant, a house mortgage is bad enough, why buy into a sedentary transport mortgage too? (I often wondered if the sub-prime crash tipping point was nudged by exurb locations, transit poverty and fuel price escalations)
I suspect that people and corporations making dollars out of climate inaction want people affecting change to feel disempowered, atomised and ineffective, a strategy to sustain the status quo and hoard as much for themselves for as long as possible.
Still, no place will be unaffected by climate change. It's not just a sea level rise issue. Drought, flood, fire, storms and costs of living all get more extreme.
I'd suggest using whatever tools, methods, actions, arguments are necessary for cut-through in current local conditions.
Think global, act local, scale up and for future generations do not give up.
This article articulates pretty well how I've been feeling. The argument for doing things to help reduce the impacts of climate change has taken a back seat and you can see in the polls. Its just not on the top of peoples lists of concerns like it was 4-5 years ago. Its really sad. Clean air and walkable, live-able cities seem to be hotter topics to get peoples attention.
I think people struggle with things that feel big and abstract when they are struggling to make ends meet at home. I wonder how different these conversations would look if people felt like their basic, immediate needs were taken care of.
I think we need to go at the climate crisis from all angles and scales. But we can keep it human-centric forever, eventually we need to invite people to make the connection that we are Nature and thus ecocentric systems (law, gov, care, etc) are essential to our survival and the only way to move toward all life flourishing.
Support for climate action in the US has been broad and shallow.
I'm a fan of more bike lanes but the big improvement in air quality would come from gettign the worst 10% or so of poluting vehicles offf the road. Diesels are visibly the worst, some transport trucks look fine and then you'll see an outlier that looks like a 100 year old coal powered train, it's possible the driver doesn't even see it. Pick up trucks can be especially bad as well, sometimes on purpose.
I live somewhere blessed with generally great air quality. Cutting though what's in it for me complacency can be tough, as the saying goes "when all you've known is privilege, equality may feel like oppression". I agree that air quality may be a more immediately tangible change proposition to people living in areas with higher pollution. I lived in Denver for awhile and still remember the nightly weather report that always included an update on the local "brown cloud". The transition to unleaded fuel got rid of learning difficulty lead but still has many carcinogenic by-products of combustion. No safe dose.
One problem is that the car claims to be the solution for all the ills it causes. Polluted air? Buy an electric version and exercise indoors in a commercial gym. Other drivers dangerous? Buy a bigger car. Road clogged with too many cars? one more lane. Buy to solve maybe only works if you buy a bicycle or walking shoes and use them for transport (Bikes deliver what car ads only promise - Tom Flood). There is no way I could afford to live where I do if everyone in the household needed to have their own individual car. Hip pocket living costs are significant, a house mortgage is bad enough, why buy into a sedentary transport mortgage too? (I often wondered if the sub-prime crash tipping point was nudged by exurb locations, transit poverty and fuel price escalations)
I suspect that people and corporations making dollars out of climate inaction want people affecting change to feel disempowered, atomised and ineffective, a strategy to sustain the status quo and hoard as much for themselves for as long as possible.
Still, no place will be unaffected by climate change. It's not just a sea level rise issue. Drought, flood, fire, storms and costs of living all get more extreme.
I'd suggest using whatever tools, methods, actions, arguments are necessary for cut-through in current local conditions.
Think global, act local, scale up and for future generations do not give up.
This article articulates pretty well how I've been feeling. The argument for doing things to help reduce the impacts of climate change has taken a back seat and you can see in the polls. Its just not on the top of peoples lists of concerns like it was 4-5 years ago. Its really sad. Clean air and walkable, live-able cities seem to be hotter topics to get peoples attention.
Exactly.
its really sad man, I almost refrain from saying my opinion is based off climate change these days and try to come at it from different angles.. lol
I think people struggle with things that feel big and abstract when they are struggling to make ends meet at home. I wonder how different these conversations would look if people felt like their basic, immediate needs were taken care of.
I think we need to go at the climate crisis from all angles and scales. But we can keep it human-centric forever, eventually we need to invite people to make the connection that we are Nature and thus ecocentric systems (law, gov, care, etc) are essential to our survival and the only way to move toward all life flourishing.