this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
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Climate - truthful information about climate, related activism and politics.
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Because accepting the truth means accepting that unless we take radical, almost certainly financially painful action, we're all fucked. It's easier to pretend that everything is ok. At least until we start starving.
I said much the same earlier today on another thread. Lib or con, too many are not willing to sacrifice to prevent what is coming. It's easy to pawn this off on just the cons, but take a close look at your own surroundings and your lib friends and see who is walking the walk.
Paper straws and bicycles won't solve the climate crisis. What my lib friends and I are doing doesn't really matter when just a handful of entities make up so much more of the environmental impact.
We could stop those entities...if it weren't for the cons constantly blocking any attempt to help the greater good.
Not with that attitude!
More specifically, not with that disingenuous attitude that implies giving folks bicycles and changing nothing else, trying to shame them into using a mode that's worse for them in order to altruistically help everybody else. Of-fucking-course that's never gonna work!
Instead, what actually has to change is the zoning laws that shape the built environment the bicycles are operate in. We have to stop limiting density and mandating parking requirements, which not only physically force destinations farther apart (putting fewer within walking or biking distance) and cause the space between to be filled with car-infested asphalt (making walking and biking unpleasant), but also subsidize driving by forcing an oversupply of parking, driving down the price.
Removing the regulations and allowing developers to build as compactly as the market would dictate would cause people to freely choose bicycling because it would become more convenient than driving, and that is what would help solve the climate crisis!