The atomization of decision-making allows entrenched interests to disrupt progress. If you've ever been to a city planning meeting, you can see how NIMBY homeowners block transit upgrades or affordable housing. Sometimes consensus is impossible
Also, lots of state and local governments in the US have strong renter protections.
For sure. I think trying to preserve these tools is a bit of a waste of time. But extending their lifespan is always a win in my book
I'm from a big wind state. It's absurd to me how unpopular wind farms have been among rural folk. It brings jobs and revenue and has a relatively small land foot print. I just don't get why people don't like them, except for culture war stuff :/
That's a great point, I didn't consider the tech tree that leads to bikes also makes cars more likely :/
The only disease to be fully eradicated, 5 million people can live every year who otherwise would have died had we not defeated this disease
Unfortunately, I don't know if it would be possible for another species to reach our level of technology or civilization. We built up our society off of easily accessible energy resources (surface-level coal being our first source of industrial energy). This energy excess allowed us to develop other sources of energy, solar, wind, nuclear, etc. But if you tried starting from zero again, you could never get to this point, at least along the same path, as you need a high level of technology to access any available energy resources. Thus, if any new species took our place, they could only ever rise to the level of the pre-industrial revolution.
I figured there were some issues like that, I think I'm more into the general idea than this specific execution
I am really heartened by how solar continues to punch higher and higher above projections year-after-year.
Plus China is repeating our mistakes and building out a massive amount of car-centric infrastructure. Huge disappointment given the amount of resources and wonderful transit they have in major cities
If you ever find yourself with small logs or large branches, I recommend looking into Hugelkultur, which similarly involves building mounds of compostable organic material around large pieces of wood, which allows for the slow breakdown and release of nutrients over time
Poplars and willows are fairly fast growing. Plus there are perennial grass feedstocks