this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2026
136 points (95.9% liked)
Climate
8848 readers
557 users here now
Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.
As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades:
How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world:
Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:
Anti-science, inactivism, and unsupported conspiracy theories are not ok here.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Cool research. I've known for a while that electric stoves are better for air quality but I recently learned that they can still be harmful.
I bought a fancier air filter as a family member with respiratory issues may be staying with us soon. This one has a sensor that reads the level of particulates in the room and I was surprised to learn that when I cook it was dramatically worsening our air quality, even though we use electric. Pan-frying on high heat can cause smoke particles that are hardly visible to be emitted and apparently in a small home it can make things quite bad. But I learned that it's dramatically reduced by cooking on lower heat, so that's what I plan to do going forward.
Especially if you are using a coated pan.
Never again, man. That shit is especially bad for you.
It's not any easier to care for, either. Teflon pans need to be handled with kid gloves or they get all scratched up and that shit gets into your food.
My understanding is that research doesn't generally support concerns that non-stick is harmful to people eating food cooked in coated pans, but it is absolutely incredibly toxic to the people who work manufacturing them, and their manufacturing does contribute to constantly rising levels of contanimation in water supplies. Both of which are magnified by the fact that nonstick pans are disposable.
We as humanity really struggle to engage with systemic issues, and weirdly sometimes we will correctly identify that something is a problem, but are only capable of responding to it with cultural change due to concerns of individual harms we (to my understanding) don't actually think are happening, when the systemic collective harms are.
From my layperson understanding chemical fertilizers are the same, with chemical fertilizers having no issues associated with eating food grown with them but the nitrogen pollution in drinking water is associated with higher risk of cancer.
(That being said if you like cast iron I 100% reccomend trying carbon steel- its best for slightly different things but my nitrided and pre-seasoned carbon steel pan from oxo is fuckin wonderful. I wanna try a strata carbon clad pan when I finally replace my 12" nonstick since I feel like the clad construction will make it lighter and more resistant to warping if I use it on induction since that can sometimes be an issue with carbon steel pans)
Also if you overheat Teflon it releases toxic fumes. You probably won't get it hot enough by cooking, but if you accidentally left an empty pan on a lit stove it could get hot enough.
Yeah, I hand wash non-stick and hand wash cast iron, and the food usually leaves the cast iron cleaner (not to mention the induction only making a humming noise with the non-stick). I've been using cast iron a lot more lately.
I'm learning as I get older that many of the "better, newer" alternatives just straight up suck, and we just expect them to be better because that's what we grew up accustomed to.
Teflon pans and cartridge razors are the two best examples.