neanderthal

Also a huge number of people in the US travel to places that are walkable:

• Disney World
• Las Vegas (The strip is anyway)
• DC
• NYC

I am well aware of the problems with car dependent design, that isn't what this is about.

I was driving in my car mandatory suburb and was delayed by a good 10 minutes due to a pair of very poorly timed lights. The main thoroughfare had a left turn lane split off that was backed up onto the main road. The turn light would literally turn green for about 5 seconds. A bit further down the road, a light controls traffic to a neighborhood of SFH with very few cars coming or going. The light on the main road would turn red for literally no cars longer than the other light stayed green with so many cars it caused a backup.

Simply adjusting these traffic lights would save loads of time, fuel, and EMISSIONS. It got me wondering what other things like adjusting those lights could be done that even the thirstiest petroholic can't object to?

My example is a drop in the bucket to the GHG problem, but enough drops will fill the bucket. I will be contacting my city about it. I don't doubt they will at least attempt to fix it because traffic is a common complaint, so a simple fix is an easy win for them.

How about some good news today?

I would like to address the doomers.

Just stop. All you are accomplished is dissuading people from trying. Even if we fail, some of us would rather go out feeling good about ourselves knowing that we actually tried. If we succeed, I want to be on the right side of history. If you want to drive a canyonero through a drive through to buy a double cheeseburger on your way to the airport to fly somewhere for a shopping trip: please keep it to yourself.

• There is still hope
• Most people want action. I can cite more than one source.
• Things are starting to turn around. Not as fast as we need to, but we are seeing change
• Some of us are parents and have a reason to fight with all we have
• If things get bad, our kids will actually want to have a relationship with us if we cared enough to try
• Many things that help are economically better on the micro and macro scales

Doomers are the fossil fuel industry's best friend-- even more than the deniers are. If enough people succumb to it, they don't even have to pay lip service to the problem. Doomerism means you can continue to pollute and not even try.

Good News. Kentucky re-elected Democratic governor. Virginia flipped house of delegates to Democrats, gaining complete control of state legislature.

Kentucky shows is that even in red states, Democrats have the numbers. This shows how critical showing up and voting is.

GOP/Republicans bad for climate change. They deny it, say it isn't humans, etc. Democrats at least acknowledge we need to do something.

For those outside the US, we have first past the post voting, which inevitably leads to two political parties.

State governments hold a lot of power. They are almost completely over sovereign with certain restrictions and reservations of power by our federal government.

GOP (aka Republicans) = Right to far right. I.e. libertarian, fascist, conservative, Christian nationalist.

Democrat = center right to far left. I.e. conservative, progressive, socialist, neoliberal

Democrats have greater numbers by a good margin, but have lower voter turnout and are disenfranchised electorial due to gerrymandering.

Good Morning USA. It is election day. Go vote. That is all.

Not a good look...

Ideally, rezoning and infrastructure changes would reduce the need for school buses. We don't have the time though, so this is a win. Hopefully production can ramp up and governments can create incentives for schools to buy these instead of dead dino powered buses.

TLDR: Fossil fuels are going to all but end sooner or later.

My take, the industry can waste time and money lobbying and wrecking their reputation and the planet even more, or they can get with the program and start transitioning to other operations. I.e. they can choose the redemption arc or the self destruction arc.

TLDR: Media needs to do more. News outlets should add climate sections along with the rest of their news sections.

I'd like to see more actionable content like how to convince city governments to do stuff. E.g All the stuff a lot of the urbanists talk about are better in almost every way than the car dependency we have in the US. The NIMBYs are relentless in my area. They organized on next door to show up at a zoning meeting in my area to try and prevent a rezone so a developer could build 4 story condos rather than practically useless offices now that most office stuff can be done remotely.

The fact that self driving cars exist is an admission that driving a car can really suck. Navigating busy suburbs and cities in a car is a stressful experience, especially when people are commuting to or from work.

I don't think cars should be completely eliminated, as they have their place, but the existence of self driving cars is strong evidence of the insanity of the car being the only feasible way to get around some parts of the world.

We are racing down a mountain at full throttle. Our children are in the back seat. The speedometer is buried. The road curves sharply ahead. On the outside of the curve is a cliff with a 200 meter drop. On the other side is a vertical rock wall.

Here are some ideas I came up with to help push people into taking action. Sure we need systemic changes like ending car dependent cities and heavily reducing fossil fuel usage. Doing nothing is smashing through the guard rail and off the cliff. Doing one is slowing enough to MAYBE survive crashing into the mountain. Doing both is slowing down enough to navigate the curve.

There are some things we CAN do.

1. Start spreading the word on social media for unofficial things like moo-less Monday. Don't eat beef on Mondays. Weather Wednesday, where you adjust or turn off your HVAC. This could be a whole other thread.

2. Start getting louder and louder. Remember, we need to both act AND influence enough people for systemic changes.

3. Consume less. Be as efficient with resources as possible. There tons of things you can do here that are minimal effort and barely noticeable.

4. Political action. Vote. Run if you are able. Contact politicians at all levels. Talk with people about things that have benefits beyond just climate. E.g. transit reduces traffic.

5. Stay strong. Don't succumb to doomerism.