To think that cars are the biggest cause of climate change?

[malificent7]

I didn't learn to drive till I was 30 as I was concerned about the effects of cars on global warming. Everyone thought I was mad...however now that climate change is a hot topic i wonder how many people still feel that driving isn't damaging to the planet?
Then there are the car accidents, roads are an eyesore.
I mean I drive as I live in the country but I kind of hate it too.

@burritofan

So what happened at 30 to make you decide, “Nah, fuck the planet”?

I think what happens is it’s convenient not to drive and you can get holier than thou points for deciding it’s due to climate change. Then it’s inconvenient so becomes a necessity but oh so worrying so you don’t seem like a hypocrite.

I haven’t flown anywhere in ten years. Mainly due to finances and not wanting to travel with small children. That my carbon footprint is smaller is a good thing but I’m not going to pretend it’s my only reason cause I’m not an arse.

Cities haven't been designed around cars but our way of life has

Be that expectation to all arrive in the office at 9, expectations that all members of the household will work and so at least one person is unlikely to live close to work , expectations to live in a nice area not just close to work , expectations to have and do lots of stuff that requires you to travel because it's more cost effective for the store /cinema to be large and serve a large area...

@EvilPea

I’m not entirely sure having one manufacturing hub (China) for the world is the best use of fuels.it needs shipping of materials there, then manufacturing, then shipping back to ports around the world, a lorry to another distribution centre and then a van to its final destination.

Then when finished with, the reverse happens for recycling.

It actually makes sense to have huge manufacturing facilities in one place. There's no where where the all the raw materials and the consumer market are in the same place. So if you move the manufacturing plants closer to raw materials, you may be moving them away from the consumer market, and vice versa. From a logistics perspective, it's much more efficient to have all manufacturing in one place. That way, the ships taking raw materials from source to manufacturing location can be loaded with finished goods to take to the consumer market, in an "efficient" triangle". You wouldn't want ships going from manufacturing to consumer and then returning empty or from raw material source to manufacture and returning empty. There'll be enormous efficiencies in having all the manufacturing plant in one location, i.e. all the support services, such as building, plant manufacturing/installation, plant/building maintenance, etc.

It would be far less efficient to have hundreds/thousands of separate smaller manufacturing facilities closer to the end consumer location. You may save on "delivery miles" between factory and consumer, but you've massively increase "delivery miles" between raw material source and factories all over the world, not to mention the loss of "economies of scale" as smaller factories would be less productive/efficient than larger ones.

.

For each product there will be a location that minimises the total transportation costs , dependent on the required raw materials and the final market

I would be surprised if that location was always China

And meat.

And fashion. Manmade fabrics are full of plastic, which is made from fossil fuel, and all new clothes/fabric use loads of water and often pesticides which affect pollinators, leading to greater % loss of crops so more are needed etc.

Overconsumption.

And its easy to blame China but the UK is a huge customer of Chinese exports because pwople want cheap stuff. How often do people check the source of what they are buying?

People like to ignore the environmental, and human welfare, costs for cheap stuff.

Apparently the world's sixteen biggest ships put out the same co2 as all the cara

*cars

Having children...

@RealBecca

And its easy to blame China but the UK is a huge customer of Chinese exports because pwople want cheap stuff. How often do people check the source of what they are buying?

People like to ignore the environmental, and human welfare, costs for cheap stuff.

It’s really hard to buy stuff manufactured elsewhere.

Humans

Children affect the future not the now
Children of the future may well have lower emissions than people today

Across the population there is no evidence that a family with children produces more emissions than a family without

Roughly speaking emissions is proportional to your spend. If people don't have children they have more spare cash for things like trips to Paris

The wealthiest in our society and across the world have higher emissions

That does not absolve anyone of their own contributions

It’s really hard to buy stuff manufactured elsewhere.

Yep. We need a trade policy that puts tariffs on high-carbon goods.

@duckyla

I don't understand the not learning till you were 30 thing, what did you do before to get around?

Neither did I. I lived in London and used public transport, which was much easier than trying to drive into the city or across it.

@RandomLondoner

OK, I have just found an up-to-date list of per-capita emissions by country. China is 12th-worst in the list, UK is almost the same at 13th.

So in a list just long enough to include the UK, China is the second best, after the UK.

From worst to less bad, the list is
Saudi Arabia
Australia
USA
Canada
South Korea
Russia
Japan
Germany
South Africa
Polan
Iran
China
United Kingdom

No link to check veracity of data

Modern cars produce very little CO2, often none, which is one of the biggest causes of climate change.

Unless folk produce links to verify the data and I don't mean one scientists opinion the data is invalid

@midgemagneto

For each product there will be a location that minimises the total transportation costs , dependent on the required raw materials and the final market

I would be surprised if that location was always China

Exactly. We think that China is "East" and the UK/Europe/USA is "West". But in reality, China is closer to USA that we think. It's just we way maps are drawn. If you get an interactive online map and centralise it on China, you see that it's probably very central for all the major markets.

Animal agriculture. Stop buying the meat, dairy and other associated products and you can make a huge difference.

A car adds 1 tonne per year.

My commute alone produces 6 times that, social and pleasure use at least another 10 tonnes.

Lots of things contribute more than cars - e.g. the city I'm in night now, there's cargo ships, cruise ships, something like 60% of emissions in citities come from buildings (aircon, offices where there's lighting on all day when there's no need etc.). This city is being declared a "Clean Air Zone" by the council who are conveniently ignoring the fact that there's cruise terminal right next to the main route across the city through said zone with huge ships moored there spewing fumes out all day and night, twice daily large Irish/IoM ferries, cargo ships in and out all day to the docks south of the city with the majority of the loads being taken away by road on the back of an HGV, there's also an airport, and a mainline train station. Constant new development of (shoddy) flats/mixed use property over any green space in the city centre. Across the river there's a refinery, with tankers up and down the river regularly. But somehow cars are considered the only problem here 🤔

If you’re interested in a bit of analysis on this subject this report is worth a look

es.catapult.org.uk/reports/net-zero-living-carbon-free/

Headline is though that A net zero future would require lifestyle changes for transport, diet and air travel. But the most significant change would relate to how people heat their homes.

Definitely worth a read

@Peacocking

Animal agriculture. Stop buying the meat, dairy and other associated products and you can make a huge difference.

Bull. Vegetarian living vegan living is destroying arable land by over production, destroying forests worldwide. We're all responsible. There's just too many of us

@Shade17

A car adds 1 tonne per year.

My commute alone produces 6 times that, social and pleasure use at least another 10 tonnes.

Jakers what's your annual mileage?