Taking harm reduction measures in the meantime is absolutely not a waste of time. We cannot be so naive as to think that your suggestions will happen in the short term as each of them require radical changes to the political and social landscape that will take (have been taking) decades.
This is the same waste of time as saying that pain medication for somebody who broke their leg is a waste of time as it doesn’t heal the leg.
Of course it doesn’t fix the issue, that’s not the point. It might buy us precious needed time to stave off total disaster, which I think is a good thing ™
I’m sure that governments and large companies will (ab)use this by saying “hey! We got ten years extra so let’s return to abusive polluting!”, but that’s a different issue.
Don’t just shit on ideas that help just because they aren’t a fix all solution.
Build “15 minute cities” or just look at the Netherlands on how to build cites that were awesome to live whilst never needing a car. Build bicycle roads everywhere, subside the crap out of bicycles, increase taxes on gasoline.
Build good public transportation infrastructure everywhere. High speed lines only for cross country.
Tax air flights like there literally is not tomorrow
Ban private jets and yachts
Ban muscle cars and unnecessary large cars like those stupid SUV and pickups
Push factories to get CO2 neutral. Help and subsidise where and as needed.
Heavily tax farming of crops with extreme water requirements
Get rid of stupid places like Las Vegas that shouldn’t exist in the first place.
Plant trees everywhere
Research on how we can get large transport ships emit less crap, maybe even electric, if possible (big question mark there)
The ban on cattle is actually much more problematic than it appears. I didn’t understand just how problematic until very recently. Our world relies on the animal parts that are “left over” in the butchering process, not to mention the single most prolific and effective source of fertilizer for all of the vegetables that we eat is animal waste and the only method to produce enough of it to feed everyone is genuinely large scale animal farming.
Nuclear doesn’t really solve the problem. Yes the energy generation is carbon neutral, the material still has to be produced, refined and transported, which is also quite energy expensive, not to mention the messy matter of material disposal. Further, nuclear does put out a lot of energy, but the ability to output an entire countries energy requirements from 3 plants makes energy security worse, because you have fewer fallbacks in the case of power grid malfunction (CSIRO published a nuclear feasibility study for Australia recently which highlighted this as a major issue with nuclear power). Even if all that works out, it still takes ages to build a nuclear plant, by which point you could have filled the grid with renewable energy and storage and saved a lot of time and money while also meeting energy requirements and reducing cadbon output.
This is a waste of time as it doesn’t address the root cause of the problem.
Here are a few real impactful solutions:
Build and subsidize nuclear power
Ban cow ranching and beef entirely
Build and subsidize denser housing
Taking harm reduction measures in the meantime is absolutely not a waste of time. We cannot be so naive as to think that your suggestions will happen in the short term as each of them require radical changes to the political and social landscape that will take (have been taking) decades.
This is the same waste of time as saying that pain medication for somebody who broke their leg is a waste of time as it doesn’t heal the leg.
Of course it doesn’t fix the issue, that’s not the point. It might buy us precious needed time to stave off total disaster, which I think is a good thing ™
I’m sure that governments and large companies will (ab)use this by saying “hey! We got ten years extra so let’s return to abusive polluting!”, but that’s a different issue.
Don’t just shit on ideas that help just because they aren’t a fix all solution.
Also, your list is a bit short.
Build “15 minute cities” or just look at the Netherlands on how to build cites that were awesome to live whilst never needing a car. Build bicycle roads everywhere, subside the crap out of bicycles, increase taxes on gasoline.
Build good public transportation infrastructure everywhere. High speed lines only for cross country.
Tax air flights like there literally is not tomorrow
Ban private jets and yachts
Ban muscle cars and unnecessary large cars like those stupid SUV and pickups
Push factories to get CO2 neutral. Help and subsidise where and as needed.
Heavily tax farming of crops with extreme water requirements
Get rid of stupid places like Las Vegas that shouldn’t exist in the first place.
Plant trees everywhere
Research on how we can get large transport ships emit less crap, maybe even electric, if possible (big question mark there)
The ban on cattle is actually much more problematic than it appears. I didn’t understand just how problematic until very recently. Our world relies on the animal parts that are “left over” in the butchering process, not to mention the single most prolific and effective source of fertilizer for all of the vegetables that we eat is animal waste and the only method to produce enough of it to feed everyone is genuinely large scale animal farming.
There are types of animals other than cows.
This is very true, and each one fits into the industrial processes in different places. Many times the uses are not interchangeable.
Nuclear doesn’t really solve the problem. Yes the energy generation is carbon neutral, the material still has to be produced, refined and transported, which is also quite energy expensive, not to mention the messy matter of material disposal. Further, nuclear does put out a lot of energy, but the ability to output an entire countries energy requirements from 3 plants makes energy security worse, because you have fewer fallbacks in the case of power grid malfunction (CSIRO published a nuclear feasibility study for Australia recently which highlighted this as a major issue with nuclear power). Even if all that works out, it still takes ages to build a nuclear plant, by which point you could have filled the grid with renewable energy and storage and saved a lot of time and money while also meeting energy requirements and reducing cadbon output.
Counter point: send a message to alpha centauri and await for salvation in a few years