cymbal_king

@cymbal_king@lemmy.world

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cymbal_king , (edited )

Fossil fuel companies knew about global warming since at least the 1970s. Those companies have used their enormous wealth to reverse trends towards public transit (e.g. Los Angeles used to have street cars...), halt the green energy transition until very recently, and spread misinformation and buy politicians.

Edit: also think about how all of those oil spills, mountain top removal, air and water pollution, cancers, asthma, heart disease that were "necessary for the economy" over the past couple of decades. When instead we could have already had fully sustainable energy systems with similar economic growth. Vote for politicians willing to do something about it.

cymbal_king ,

While I agree there are issues with capitalism. I disagree this was capitalism working as intended. If it were, the better/more innovative technology (green/cheap energy) would have surpassed the worse technology (dirty energy reliant on continued investment and extraction) because as we are finally seeing, there is more money to be made with green energy than fossil fuels. Suppression of green energy took active anti-capitalist anti-competitive efforts to preserve the edge of fossil fuels.

cymbal_king ,

Agree this is animal industry propaganda. Providing some data on the environmental impacts of various protein sources: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/ghg-per-protein-poore

Are there any EV cars without any "technology"?

Like the title says, are there any EVs that just have a Bluetooth radio and that's it? Like a normal car, not a smartphone on wheels? If not, do you all think that this will actually happen at some point? This is the main reason why I can't (and will never) buy an EV. I like to have actual buttons everywhere on my car. I think...

cymbal_king ,

My Hyundai Ioniq 5 has ample physical buttons on the center console, steering wheel, and door, and a physical door handle that Teslas lack. Sure there is a touch screen (smaller than industry average), but I don't frequently use it, the buttons outside the screen are enough.

cymbal_king ,

The copious amounts of sugar in our diets, antibiotics for livestock (or just factory farming in general), single-use plastics, and new pesticides/herbicides are today's things that are "perfectly safe"...but not really.

With the exception of medicine, a big issue in the U.S. at least is that companies don't have to proactively prove a new chemical/product is safe for the environment or public health before selling it. The EPA really only has the authority and staffing capabilities to step in once issues arise years or decades later. Just look at PFAS which are finally getting regulated decades too late.

cymbal_king ,

Adding all of that coal and limestone trapped a lot of carbon underground. If that carbon was CO2 instead, the Earth would be much hotter. Perhaps hotter than the boiling point of water and thus there would be no ocean between the continents, like Venus.

cymbal_king , (edited )

EPA recently updated the "Social Cost of Carbon" which is an estimate of the dollar amount of damage each metric ton of CO2 emitted costs society from pollution, natural disasters, humanitarian issues, etc. In 2023 the cost was ~$204/metric ton. A flight across the Continental US emits about 1 metric ton per economy passenger.

So carbon offsets should be priced in the neighborhood of $200/metric ton. But many of the carbon offset services are pretty scammy or fraudulent. As an alternative, I'd suggest considering a simple donation to an environmental charity in the same dollar range. Check out Coalition for Rainforest Nations as an option!

cymbal_king ,

Oh wow, thanks for pointing that out, an oversight on my part. I replaced the link, but damn it's hard to find good sources about this. EPA website is very technical and not much I could find breaking it down well that was not industry-funded.

And yeah there's other ways to look at spending money to offset emissions that are hard to reduce, like air travel. I figure this gets people thinking in different ways and these charities could use the funds.

cymbal_king ,

Neat! Looks like the entrance to a dwarven kingdom

cymbal_king , (edited )

We have some similar tastes. I think you'll like:

Borns

Florence and the Machine

Lorde's 2021 album Solar Power

Spoon

Billy Raffoul

Hozier

Bishop Briggs

cymbal_king ,

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/d70bc8fe-9f6d-4548-b041-def647e62614.gif

cymbal_king ,

Hyundai Ioniqs don't feel this way!

cymbal_king ,

This article is spot on, I really dislike the doom and gloom messaging that is common to attempt to motivate people into action. It makes people feel hopeless. Climate change solutions all have other more immediate benefits for say human health or financial safety, or even just preventing deforestation. It's more motivating to emphasize the benefits of doing something rather than the consequences of not doing it.

Even with major corporations being the primary culprits of climate change, individual choices of people add up. Taking public transit or biking, improving energy efficiency/home weatherization, eating less meat, and generally getting off of fossil fuels often provides the greatest benefits to the people who make those changes.

cymbal_king ,

Well there's those brain eating amebas

cymbal_king ,

The Revivalists are an incredible bluesy rock band, but everything of theirs on the radio is their blandest stuff. They really excel with live performances and amazing instrumentals.

"It Was a Sin" builds slow but gets really high energy by the end

"Soul Fight" has a top notch saxophone solo

Here's a full concert at Red Rocks

cymbal_king ,

$4,800 every 6 months is only $800/month. The OP pays $500/mo on insurance, let's say $100 on gas a month, that's only $200/month payment on the loan for an old used car. Car ownership is expensive, but it's probably more common for the car payment to be $500/month and insurance to be $200/month. This doesn't even factor maintenance

cymbal_king ,

The "nature only has two sexes" crowd obviously never heard of Schizophyllum commune which has thousands

Who is doing the most good in the world, and how? ( kbin.social )

My feed is filled with bad news, which is my fault for using the fediverse as a news feed, but it made me wonder: Which organisations, groups or individual people in the world are doing the most good for our world? I'm particularly interested in those who manage to do good on a larger impact scale (quantity or quality), but if...

cymbal_king ,

Coalition for Rainforest Nations

They work with national governments, indigenous peoples, and local communities to create and audit rainforest protection programs. They also work to reforest areas and generally spread knowledge about rainforest ecosystems.

cymbal_king ,

If you know your investigational therapy is better than a placebo or standard of care, then why do the trial? Just because something is new doesn't mean it's good

cymbal_king ,

We do trials to determine if a new treatment is safe and effective. Let's say you got a "miracle drug" that cures whatever disease you're studying, but it is too toxic and kills patients over time. That drug may get hyped up in early development as a miracle cure, but you need to compare it to something else to be sure the toxicity seen is not driven by something unrelated. This is why it's not ethical to run late stage trials without a standard of care or placebo control arm, because in this case the standard of care would be the better treatment option.

This concept is called equipoise, as in the two treatments are equally poised to provide benefit to patients at the beginning of the trial. Otherwise if you had enough data to know for certain your new therapy is better, then the trial is unnecessary and it should just be a regular medicine/submitted to a health authority for approval instead of wasting >$100 million dollars on another trial.

cymbal_king ,

Corn syrup is mainly cheap because of the huge subsidies, putting that money to better use supporting veggie or fruit production would make us all a lot healthier

cymbal_king OP ,

Eh, the CHIPS Act also does good things that doesn't necessarily need additional funding, so repealing it entirely would end those things as well. This problem gets at the structure of Congress, they have "authorization" committees that give power to federal agencies and separate committees that give money to agencies.

cymbal_king OP ,

I like how many European countries fixed the shutdown issue... Force a snap election for everyone in parliament if a budget isn't passed.

cymbal_king ,

For anyone in the US, you can ask your primary care doctor for a referral to a Registered Dietician if you are having issues with excess body weight, limited muscle gain, or other diet related health concerns.

Body weight really is all about calories in vs calories out regardless of age. Eating bulky vegetables is often recommended because they are filling without being calorie dense (as well as the vitamins). Low intensity activity (standing, walking, gardening) is associated with the largest decreases in body weight because it does use some calories but doesn't increase appetite as much as high intensity exercise. Although some exercise is still good to keep up muscle mass and heart health. Yes, as you age it can be more difficult to create/maintain muscle mass as your biology changes, but there are always health benefits to eating healthy and staying active.

I really like the Nutrition Source for science-based nutrition information in case anyone is interested!

cymbal_king ,

Yeah the home builders fighting these building codes don't actually seem to care about "affordability." With mortgages spreading out the cost of buying a home over several decades the tiny increase in cost is way more than offset by the energy savings. If I were to buy a new construction home I would expect it to be the most efficient home on the market... You can get an older home for less and then make the energy upgrades yourself otherwise

cymbal_king OP ,

The patient featured in the article has survived lung cancer for 15 years. Seems a little long to feel badly when it's possible for newer types of therapies to use lower doses that are just as effective.

cymbal_king ,

Check out Naturepedic mattresses. 100% natural materials except the steel springs. They have a modular design that you can open up occasionally to flip the springs or topper if you like. You can also replace the individual components as desired, not that we've needed to. Very comfortable too, although during the trial period we ended up switching out the foam topper for one that was less firm than we liked on the show floor (they allow this for free within a certain time frame after buying).

cymbal_king ,

Hear me out, I go to a Unitarian Universalist church for the music and sense of community. There is no shared theology among UUs, only a set of shared values. UU services vary a lot by the specific congregation. Ours has had services on celebrating gender identities, promoting social justice, mourning global conflicts, and fighting climate change. Sometimes relevant theology from a variety of world religions is incorporated into services, but there is no expectation to be a believer and there are many atheist members in my church. The rest of the time we have potlucks, play board games, do community service projects, etc.

cymbal_king ,

It probably depends heavily on the specific congregation. I haven't seen those vibes personally though. In my experience nobody really bothers the people who just show up occasionally, except to be friendly at coffee hour. UU are very much about democracy and so the local make up of the congregation can take it in many directions. Try it out on zoom if they offer a hybrid attendance to see if it's a good fit

cymbal_king ,

~50% of the time I attend virtually, because yeah it's nice to sleep in on Sunday and make breakfast with the service on Zoom and camera off

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