@mike
Tax parking
Tax carbon
Tax heavy cars
End Euclidean zoning
Support density
Support passivhaus
Support clean indoor air
Support walkable neighborhoods
Support separated bike lanes
Support public transit
Support public parks
Protect farmland
Protect wilderness
Protect humanity
Support immigration
Support education
Support free press
Support campaign finance reform
Support independent judiciary
Support transparency
Support democracies
@PapyrusBrigade Also I'm the biggest fan of recreational horsepower you're ever going to find, but I've long proposed a tax on engine size (with certain work exceptions) . The climate takes priority and nobody needs an F250 grocery getter.
@mike Euclidean (or exclusionary) zoning, is the practice of separating land use into zones: single family residential, multi-family, commercial, industrial, etc. Banning apartments and shops from neighborhoods creates car dependent sprawl and vast expanses of parking lots. Huge contrast to historic walkable neighborhoods.
Passivhaus is efficient housing through: super insulated exterior, airtight, efficient windows, avoidance of thermal bridge, and heat recovery ventilation.
@PapyrusBrigade@mike I'm all for bringing back the corner shop. Interesting that they're re-appearing in cities, now called "convenience stores".
There'd be less food waste if we weren't obliged to go weekly to a supermarket to stock the pantry. Getting just what you need for the next couple of days is much more efficient. If you run out of something, it's a short walk to the shop to get it. You can send your kid on their bike.
Use less data. Ban new Data Centers in your region.
Data centres use energy to operate and water for cooling. Hyperscale data centres dry out the areas where they are located. And they consume so much energy that they exceed the aviation industry in C02.
@tunubesecamirio I've always wondered, why not build data centres in the Arctic? You have an abundance of super cooled air 8-9 months of the year. Random thought.
@mike
Because they are capitalist companies, they are only interested in profit. That's why they go to desert areas with poor people and steal their water. Like the #DataCenter they want to place in #TalaveraDeLaReina.
@janriemer@mike food air miles need to be looked at by country level or lower, I think, to decide how impactful a change might be to switching to eating local. Whilst air miles for food might be low globally, they will be high for certain places. For example the UK imports a lot of fruit from South America.
@SiobhanVohn Yes, that is a good point, thank you for mentioning it.👍
It also depends on types of food, like you've alluded to. Food that needs some kind of "freshness" and so needs to be transported quickly (e.g. certain kind of fruit, especially berries), is often transported via planes.
@janriemer@mike yes indeed. I also often find that people in Scotland say they don't like fruit. That often seems to be because they have only experienced supermarket fruit, picked before optimum ripeness, so it can be transported long journeys. Once people taste local fruit, picked in season, when ripe, it opens up a whole new taste experience. Sadly we are losing a lot of our prime agricultural land to ill thought out housing developments. And have already lost many of our local markets.
@SiobhanVohn@janriemer In British Columbia we are blessed with an abundance of fruit and veg. In greater Vancouver are we have for many years had something called the Agricultural Land Reserve. Basically large tracts of the land that cannot be used for development. Even though we have some of the most expensive real estate on the planet, taking land out there if the ALR is almost impossible.
ALR sounds like an excellent idea. We currently have a Good Food Nation act moving through Scottish Parliament. The original bill was much more robust and included land protection but it keeps getting watered down a bit at each stage. There is still mention of a sustainable food system and supply chains minimising climate change, so hopefully we will end up with some sort of useful legislation. It might be the agricultural bills that have to do the heavy lifting in this area.
We have the potential to be blessed with an abundance of fruit and veg. Our orchards were renowned across Europe in medieval times but have mostly fallen into ill repair. There has been a revival in recent years, with old orchards being mapped and renovated and many heritage varieties rediscovered. Our soft fruit is sought after because of our long daylight hours in the summer. Many market gardens are popping up again. Fingers cross we continue to move in the right direction.
@mike save by investing in non-fossil companies
Bank where they do not finance fossil companies
Ask your government to live up to ite promises and signed treaties.
@mike convert lawn to meadow, great for insects, frogs, lizards, mice, snakes & higher predators, Lovely to look at too
Dont BUY! MAKE: beer, soap, hand lotions, deodorants, etc. All easy, much nicer
Grow veggies, plant fruit tree/bushes mostly easy, lovely!
Save water, catch rain water, never buy bottled water
Have solar / wind power if you can, not so easy, but doable, check cheap ads for old panels/turbines
Eat less meat
Wean off sugar
Host Bee's, ask local beekeepers if you have space
@rebel63 Thanks for the great suggestions! I'm wondering though how does going off sugar help fight climate change? Refusing to buy bottled water is an easy but huge step.
Get cars off the road.
Get trucks off the road.
Stop making new roads.
Vote down new power plants.
Use less steel.
Use less concrete.
Pull less oil out of the ground.
Burn none of it.
Keep less livestock.
Use less fertilizer.
@mike Give less stuff as gifts. X doesn't need a new coffee maker if their old one is still good. Even if it does have "exciting new features" or looks cool.
Give edibles, drinkables or other consumables, tickets to a show, vouchers for whatever, or your time and skills to help with something.
@mike
Arange your life around your place (less moving around)
Walk and cycle.
Reconsider the heated (cooled) area you live in.
Small is beautiful.
Engagement, commitment.
@jackofalltrades Yes of course everything can be categorized as ideology, ethos, philosophy, whatever.. I'm trying to avoid the "eat the rich", "end capitalism" regurgitative clap trap that is absolutely useless in my daily life.
You are advocating for actions that when implemented by the majority would in effect end #capitalism, but at the same time you are annoyed by the "end capitalism regurgitative clap trap".
In other words, you are looking for solutions that stay within the philosophical framework of #individualism to a systemic wicked problem of #ClimateChange.
@mike Why would you want to reduce consumption? I thought you wanted to fight climate change. If we can't discuss capitalism then the solution is obviously to buy more, but just the right "green" kind of stuff.
Buy more solar panels.
Buy plane tickets with carbon offsets.
Buy an EV. Or two.
Buy only the most efficient appliances.
Buy shares in "green" companies.
There you go, that should help, all of the above you can easily implement in your daily life. None of that "end capitalism" crap.
@jackofalltrades@mike Individualism is perfectly compatible with recognizing and solving systemic problems. For example, #ClimateChange is a result of a violation of the equal claim of every individual to products of nature. The lack of institutional recognition of this equal claim of all individuals is what allows polluters to keep polluting without paying for the true social costs of their pollution
@mike
But that literally what needs to be done, the rich cause all the emissions.
The richest 1% have 2x the emissions of then pooreat 50%. If the richest 10% lived like the average European, we cut emissions by 32%, we could do that in a couple weeks, not enough but a huge step in the right direction.
The rich won't do it voluntarily, so we need to vote for green politcans who will force them too via legislation. I can ride by bicycle as much as I want but it won't stop assholes like Elon Musk or Taylor Swift flying in their private jets.
My one feint hope is we have a class war and wedge apart those doing the destruction from those who aren't.
@mike@lindagallagher I asked to borrow a socket spanner in my Buy Nothing Group and was lent one within hours. Lender lived literally in the next street, dropped the tool off while walking his dog and collected it the same way.
There are many people out there who want to be kind and helpful.
@alcinnz@mike Brilliant! I fixed a few sewing machines for peeps in my Buy Nothing Group this year. Now they can mend their clothes, or make new ones out of fabric remnants discarded by others. They can shorten curtains to fit their windows and pants to fit their children. Sewing is a great skill. Learn it.
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