this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2026
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Fuck Cars
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Is there a study that shows the full environmental cost over the decades it takes for the cars pollution to be handled by the world?
Including fine particles that mostly stem from car tires as far as I know.
Only because they’ve drastically cleaned up engine emissions and oil/grease leaks. Not to mention removing lead, and then MTBE from gasoline. It’s interesting watching old movies and seeing how black the middle of concrete roads used to be from oil and exhaust soot.
Not to say that tire microplastics aren’t bad, just that it was so much worse before, that they weren’t worth focusing on.
Possibly also the average weight of cars nearly doubling isn’t helping.
To add to your comment : car pollution may be _Less Worst_™️ by car unit, but if the following graph is true, then having more than doubled the amount of cars on the road since the 1970s means that there is even more pollution now than when we said "hey, seems bad". (unless the weighted pollution measure has been reduced by more than 66%, which is 🤔)
source : https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/pubs/hf/pl11028/chapter3.cfm
When talking tires particles, I wonder what the changes were when we started using much lighter alloys / metals in the body, and how it rebounded back now that most car sold in North America is Suburban-sized.
Plus there are always new and fun chemicals added to tires