“[FSD] offers a vivid example of how the world’s richest person has complicated one of his biggest bets through rash decision-making, a stubborn insistence on doing things differently, and unyielding confidence in a vision that has yet to be proven.”
A century ago, Thomas Midgley Jr. was responsible for two destructive innovations heralded as breakthroughs at the time: leaded gasoline and CFCs. What are the lessons for today? Should be thinking more long term? *Can* we?
Excellent article. No paywall
The heat pump revolution is here. “It is ridiculous to burn a fossil fuel at thousands of degrees to heat up your apartment by 10 to 20 degrees. It’s a crime against the laws of thermodynamics.”
ICYMI - a link to a recording of the OSU CURA webinar by Peter Norton, author of Autonorama - The Illusory Promise of High Tech Driving. He blows up myth after myth about car culture and shreds the false promises of high-tech driving. A tour de force showing why history matters:
https://youtu.be/Pz1Q_uP7tsc?t=55
Nearly everyone — 99 percent of the global population — is exposed to unhealthy levels of tiny and harmful air pollutants, known as PM 2.5, according a new study released Monday in Lancet Planet Health.
If by “vocal bicycling advocate” you mean I speak against the needless maiming and killing of people riding bicycles to preserve the convenience and privilege of drivers, then yes I accept that label.
Highway advocates pretend that more capacity improves mobility, but this is an illusion: more capacity generates more travel, sprawl and costs. Highway planners could model induced travel, but they ignore, deny or systematically these effects.
You really think autonomous vehicles are cutting-edge? Ha! They've been promising high tech driving for as long as cars have existed. Maybe its time to look past cars as a solution? On March 10th, don't miss the latest @osucura webinar by @PeterNorton12
https://cura.osu.edu/events/illusory-promise-high-tech-driving-peter-norton
During the Trump administration, the USDOT withdrew, repealed, delayed or put on the back burner at least a dozen significant safety rules, according to an Associated Press review of the department's regulatory actions over the past year.
Ah, yes. If you can’t weaponize people who use wheelchairs to fight for more car dependency, just invoke fire trucks and ambulances. There must be a guidebook published somewhere. wapo.st/3YHd7Z8
“All of this happened as rail company owners took home nearly $200 billion in stock buybacks and dividends and reduced their work force by nearly 30 percent as part of a so-called “precision scheduled railroading” strategy.”
https://nyti.ms/3xvTbg0?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
The self-reinforcing dynamic is a spiral effect: Governments risk expending so much money and attention on merely coping with the impacts of climate change that they neglect efforts to reduce global emissions, exacerbating the crisis.
Why does the South have such ugly credit scores? Poor health, medical debt and states that refused to expand Medicaid may be major factors.
Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) means that we have longer and heavier freight trains, with fewer people on the job making sure they operate safely. It may be good for rail companies, but people in places like East Palestine, Ohio pay the price.
“One of the worst environmental disasters in modern US history” may happen within five years if water usage in Utah isn’t cut by 50%
The world risks descending into a ‘doom loop’, where the consequences of the climate crisis draw focus and resources from tackling its causes, leading to more severe consequences, diverting even more attention and resources from tackling the root causes