SLRPNK

Let me know if you have suggestions for short phrases that could excite people enough to investigate solarpunk.

Fully electric and hybrid vehicles are helping America reduce greenhouse gas emissions to record levels, the Environmental Protection Agency said in a newly published report this week. EVs are not only helping bring down harmful carbon dioxide emissions but are also increasing fleetwide fuel economy rates to record highs.

Transportation accounts for the highest share of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. Fifty-seven percent of the transportation sector’s emissions come from light-duty vehicles, as per the EPA. Tailpipe emissions have been labeled as public health hazards and are directly linked to respiratory illnesses and lung diseases.

Every major automaker witnessed a drop in their real-world CO2 emissions among new vehicles sold, except Honda and Toyota. The most significant year-over-year emissions drops came from Mercedes-Benz (-68 g/mi), BMW (-39 g/mi), Kia (-17 g/mile) and Nissan (-17 g/mile). And the largest fuel economy improvements were also from these brands.

The EPA added that SUVs are now cleaner than sedans, as they’re increasingly electrified and automakers sell more of them. The category now accounts for the lowest average new-vehicle CO2 emissions as electric SUVs accounted for 36% of all MY2023 SUVs sold. Their fuel economy also has been increasing the most over the years.

Report calls for course correction to avoid land abuse ‘compromising Earth’s capacity to support human and environmental wellbeing’

cross-posted from: https://futurology.today/post/2931197

The main culprit, according to the report, is unsustainable agricultural practices, which are responsible for 80% of forest loss. These techniques, which include heavy use of chemical inputs, pesticides and water diversion, also erode soil, diminish water supplies and contaminate ecosystems.

It’s hard to find un-enshitified services, even just email. I managed to find a dozen or so ½ decent email providers. But they are only ½ decent. Many are shit in terms of reliability, probably as a side-effect of not being well funded. But then where are the discussions? I Lemmy-search for “onionmail” and only find a dozen hits.

Why is this? IMO it’s because there are just so many shitty options that they drown out the better options. Protonmail is the mainstream alternative to the notorious corporate garbage, but PM is a shit-show in its own right .. CAPTCHAs and other anti-human obsticals.

We need decentralization, but the nasty side-effect is that it spreads an already small crowd so thin we can’t find each other in the universe.

Main link is a syndicated copy of this Wall Street Journal article

Archived copies of the article:

• archive.today
• ghostarchive.org
• web.archive.org

I don't have a garden and need to utilize the most of my balcony space.

That's why I am thinking about building or buying a vertical hydroponic setup for the next season.

The thing is: pretty much all of the inspiration for setups I saw online were either aeroponic towers or NFT systems, both of which require a pump running 24/7.
I don't want something where one single pump failure, clogged nozzle or power outage kills everything. Also, I absolutely can't stand the humming or splashing of any pump.

I want to grow mainly small annual crops, like herbs, leafy greens and stuff like that. For bigger crops, like chilis, hemp, and so on, I have my drip system with pots.

While I theoretically have access to the grid, I prefer something either completely passive, or something that at least keeps the roots hydrated enough to survive a few days, even in summer sun.

Something similar to my solar powered LECA drip setup I posted a while ago: it's beneficial when the small pump is on, but the passive wicking of the clay balls keeps everything moist enough for at least a few days.

It doesn't need to be 100% passive, but it also shouldn't depend on electronic devices for survival.

What could you suggest?

Consider using FreeTube, an open-source program for YouTube, and/or Libredirect, because privacy is important.

The link is to a year-old article that helped me decide not to pay Alaska Airlines’ voluntary SAF carbon mitigation fees. I’m still not certain about the right choice, and would like to hear your thoughts on the matter.

The big picture includes acknowledgement that there’s no such thing as ethical consumption within capitalism, so in some ways this choice is entirely irrelevant. Also that flying is by far the most polluting form of transportation per passenger mile so we should each minimize doing it. Finally that flying has the most challenging logistics of shifting energy sources, fundamentally because batteries are heavy.

Alaska offers me a choice during the checkout procedure to contribute to SAF accounting for between 5% and 20% of the fuel that my flight will use, but it has nothing to do with the fuel actually consumed by my flight. They are already buying some amount of SAF and using it in their SFO hub only, so the program is hand waving about the fungibility of fuel consumption. Really they’re just offering me the opportunity to donate money towards their SAF usage, indirectly supporting the growth of the SAF industry.

It seems to me that the whole SAF industry is currently greenwashing bullshit, piggybacking on the big lie from the past few decades that adding ethanol to automotive gasoline is “sustainable” in some meaningful way. But that ignores the water usage depleting aquifers at an accelerating rate, necessary fertilizer use and soil depletion, using food-producing acreage for fuel instead, energy usage in planting/harvesting/refining/distilling, and so on.

Please validate my choice not to donate to the current state of SAF, or provide links to interesting reading that supports your claim otherwise.

Seeking a bit of crowd wisdom here, as the topic may be of general interest.

What are the best methods to promote a new community on this instance? What behavior crosses the line? What practices seem to work best to grow a new community?

Thanks for any insights.