this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2023
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That vast majority of emissions aren't from individual commutes to work or the store, but from industrial processes and transportation. Increasing heat will lead people to stay inside in general, which will raise electric demands, leading to more emissions, though.
I could be wrong about the commute spiral, I don't have any hard numbers, it's just a guess.
The effect of switching from cars to bike is significant. .
But the best example we have of this is how cities with terrible smog suddenly cleared up during the pandemic, when there were fewer cars on the road and people got out to bike in record numbers.
But, I do agree that being forced to stay indoors would have indirect side effects on the environment.
It'll be interesting to see how, or even if, humans will solve this problem.
Oh, yeah. I was mainly just thinking about global climate change, but I could see it having a large impact on local air quality.
I'm fairly pessimistic about the long term odds of beating climate change.
Yeah, this one takes far more time to solve, but as individuals, we can still have some sway!
A vegan cyclist, for example, who doesn't fly or spend time on a cruise ship can hit several major contributors to greenhouse gases with little effort. If they use green energy, that's another major industry down. How they decide to shop can tackle a few more.
Who they vote for can also impact those areas that they have no direct influence over (i.e. certain manufacturing industries of raw materials).
This is all very easy to do on an individual basis, and don't affect one's quality of life, but multiply that by a million or a billion people and we WILL see a positive change.
The hard part is convincing someone to make easy changes to their life. 😩