You missed my main point. Mapping CO2 to roads is meaningless. It’s a tons/year thing, not a ppm near a road thing. Their analysis is misleading, based on a simple extrapolation, and boils down to a ‘drive more emit more conclusion’, obvious and not required all the steps they went through. Again, no actual measurement of CO2 emissions or concentrations were made.
I am, and I do. See the last paragraph of my comment immediately preceeding yours.
What if global warming is a vast conspiracy? What will we do with all that clean air and clean water? Wouldn’t it be terrible?
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Depends on what you have to sacrifice to reduce your carbon output. So far, I don’t see anyone sacrificing that much. But I don’t think battling climate change, global warming, the end of the world is going to be free in the monetary sense for your average citizen or free in the “freedom” sense considering some of the things that are being proposed. I’m all for a clean environment, climate change or not, if it doesn’t hurt me too much to get there. And I think most people are the same whether they admit it or not. I don’t believe many people here have totally sacrificed driving to achieve a cleaner planet. And if someone believed climate change was truly “the greatest threat facing us”, I’d think they’d try to kick the fossil fuel habit themselves. I mean “the greatest threat”…that’s a pretty big threat. If
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What are you not seeing? Maybe I can help you find it. What do you think it should look like?
There is a FB group called New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens, and most of the people in the group have shunned car culture in favor of mass transit. Do these people represent a majority of their cohort? Probably not, but it is interesting to see a different perspective from people who choose to live car-free lives.
Sometimes what we see and don’t see is a matter of getting out of our personal bubble and interacting with people we might not run into in our daily lives.
There is also a FB group called New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Adults, but it’s not nearly as active as the teen group.
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For the amount of coverage that climate change gets (including on this site) I do not see extreme sacrifices being made by the majority of the proponents or people who are apparently sold on the idea of catastrophic climate change. I didn’t say there wasn’t a group on Facebook that makes extreme sacrifices. That’s certainly possible, and I commend them for making sacrifices for their beliefs, or “walking their talk” on an extreme level. I didn’t mean to imply no groups existed. But I don’t think there are that many. I concede, I haven’t sought them out. I don’t see those sacrifices being made by politicians and media members, though. They don’t appear to be selling their large homes and reducing their carbon output. You’d think that would be all over the news if it was remotely common. Maybe it’s more common than I think. You can decide for yourself.
I’m not on Facebook. I wouldn’t say I’m “in a bubble” or trying to avoid differing opinions. I always try to be open to the possibility that I could be wrong (on many topics), so I think it’s healthy to listen to other’s viewpoint. I / you / we might learn something. Unless someone is shouting their viewpoint over mine or declaring my ignorance. Then the conversation is kind of over. Heck, I’m talking to you, and I’m sure we share different opinions on a lot of things. And that’s ok 
. I think I like you anyway 
.
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I submit that those who frequent this site create a self-selecting pro-car bias. It’s Car Talk. We like cars. That’s why we come here.
As for politicians, Joe Biden takes the train from Maryland to DC when he’s working. Many people have outfitted their homes with energy saving investments such as solar panels and insulation, and unless it’s the slowest news day of all time, I don’t think we’re going to know about it. Jesse Ventura lives off the grid, but that kind of thing doesn’t get national coverage.
The thing about that is: everyone is in a bubble. Unless you’ve studied the issue, and sought out information that you don’t randomly encounter each day, you’re not seeing a cross-section of the world, or even the country.
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Well I dunno. Seems to me I saw poll that listed climate issues at the bottom of the top ten concerns among the general population. Something like 2% see it as a major issue. Now I remember the first “Earth Day” what, some 40 years ago? Like said, nothing new under the sun. As far as the clientele here, seems like a lot of anti-car/driver folks on a Car Talk site.
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Jesse “The Body”. I can’t believe you referenced him! I couldn’t help myself, bro! Lol 
. I thought he was a right wing embarrassment. For a while anyway. I haven’t heard from “the body” in a while!
Jessie was our governor. I know a little about him and actually he was a pretty good governor. Kinda knocked both established parties on their posteriors which was a good thing. If he is living off the grid though in Mexico, it’s not because of concerns for the climate but because he’s a little paranoid. Or maybe he’s not paranoid and the folks he exposed are really out to get him.
He did a show for a while there about conspiracies. Kind of a tinfoil hat kinda thing. That’s the last I saw of him.
I just can’t get it out of my mind that i had a Jesse “the body” Ventura pencil in elementary school. Things like that stick with you, whether he’s a flaming lib or a staunch conservative. I’ll always remember him as “the body”!
I used to listen to him on the radio every morning on the way to work. He had a show with the ex-wife (nuts) of the current governor back then. Complained bitterly about government waste, etc. Definitely not a lib. Interesting though that the only governor that actually established a waste and mismanagement commission was a dentist democrat. I think he was my favorite but the worst and best have been from both sides. One of the absolute worst was a guy (actually two now that I think about it) that spent time in DC and the next worst was a guy that went to DC after being gov. Hmmm, common denominator?
Really? Verify that, or tell us that you are kidding again.
Extreme sacrifices aren’t necessary. I drive a newer Accord that gets about 35 mpg on average, compared to my previous Accord that got 25 mpg. That’s a 40% improvement, and I’m even more comfortable in the new one. We replaced an old van that got 20 mpg vs. 22 for the new one. That’s a 10% improvement. My wife doesn’t drive it that much. She drives a Cobalt most of the time. It gets 27 mpg on average. That’s 35% better than the old van, which was her sole vehicle at the time.
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I like the solar panel idea, btw. I think maybe the reason it’s not adopted more is due to economics. Because, truth be told, we’re all worried about our own self interests to some degree. Maybe one day, it’ll be both economically enticing and environmentally friendly. I’ll be on board 100%. Why not?
As far as living off the grid…I’m game. I could live in a cabin in the woods with no outside contact, and do the minalamist thing. My wife, on the other hand is more social. My kids are still trying to be cool and relevant. Me? I’m down with the hermit / nature thing. But that might be a personality disorder 
. I used to disappear in the National forests for at least a day at a time. Then came cell phones. Then came my wife (girlfriend then, Someone’s worried?) who worried when I never answered. Then came kids, who to me, spending time with them was more important than what I wanted to do.
I’m trying to talk my wife into selling the house, buying an RV / pull behind when the kids get gone and do their thing. Environmentally friendly or not, I think we’re gonna do it. See some more things outside “the bubble”.
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Ball of confusion?
One eats 2,000 Calories/day. A gram of carbohydrate has 4 Calories, therefore 500 grams/day. Carbon is 40% of the typical carbohydrate, therefore 200 grams/day of carbon. 200 grams of carbon burns into 550 grams of CO2. A gallon of gasoline weighs about 2700 grams; gasoline is 84% carbon, 2300 grams/gallon, 6200 grams of CO2.
I generate more CO2 annually than my car does, because I drive fewer than 100 miles annually.
Extreme sacrifices are 100% necessary if you believe climate change is the most serious threat we face, in my opinion. Forget percentages. If you think climate change is bringing death to the masses in the eminent future, you need to quit fossil fuels completely or you’re a hypocrite. My opinion. But I’ve got no problem with someone relying less on fossil fuels, and I think it’s a great idea. I think we all should. Dependence is rarely a good thing. But let’s define the threat. And act accordingly.
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hmm … not sure about that. For example the ship Titanic’s most serious threat – hitting an iceberg — could have been easily averted by a fraction of a degree course change 10 miles prior to the encounter. It seems to me the degree of sacrifice needed for an upcoming problem depends a lot upon how close it is, among other factors.
Thats great but most major cities dont have good mass transit and cannot foot the bill to build the infrastructure. quite frankly sitting on a bus for 2.5 hours is never going to happen . Unless you are going back to the horse and buggy days driving is the only answer currently. Even then they would complain the horses are producing too much methane . I’ll save where I can with LED bulbs, more efficient appliances , and the car makers have made great strides in efficiency and they don’t pollute very much . They are no worse than say an EV car when you factor in the manufacturing and having to dig up these rare earth minerals for the batteries that run the things to say nothing about the recycling issue .
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Don’t you mean “most major american cities don’t have good mass transit” . . . ?!
I’ll say . . .
Other countries are destroying THEIR environment mining those rare earth minerals, so that WE can drive a Bolt, Leaf, Tesla, etc. and pat ourselves on the back
