As someone who is solidly left and visibly queer, but doesn’t particularly like living in big cities, that’s the question- how do you live near trees, but not Republicans?
Of all the words in the world, those are certainly some of them
Sure. For one, the growth imperative means that any business must return a profit as its primary function. If profits are hard to come by, that can lead to things like predatory lending and higher fees for consumers, not to mention investment in environmentally destructive, but profitable, activities. Second, by commodifying human necessities like housing and turning them into investment vehicles, housing is increasingly unaffordable for working people as prices go up. I could go on, if you’d like, but I think those are both fairly compelling arguments.
One thing that I’ve found helpful is from Naomi Klein in her most recent book. To paraphrase - conspiracy theories often get the feelings right, but the facts wrong. For example, we are all being screwed over by banks and hedge funds, but it’s because of the structures of capitalism, not the Jews. But it’s much easier, mentally, to pin the blame on one specific person or group than to grapple with the flaws inherent in the social systems we’ve created.
Wind has come down a lot, just over a longer time. Solar and storage are what have really plummeted recently. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/levelized-cost-of-energy
One of the big challenges now in the US is streamlining permitting, for renewables and for transmission upgrades and expansions.
I’d be interested to see the video you mention!
This is true, but investing in research and subsidizing its production is how we drive costs down. We’ve done a really incredible job of getting clean energy costs down from where they were, but there’s no need to slow our efforts down now
Yep! It’s a good way to get over the fear of a blank page, but I don’t trust it for more than outlines or summaries
You can critique UI design without using an ableist slur
I don’t get it. Can you explain?
Neat, I’ll have to look into it. Thanks!
Why did it irritate folks at bluesky?
I find the stackable layers interesting, but I like the decentralization of the fediverse. I’m way outside my realm of expertise here, but would it be possible for a platform to adopt both?
Already happening, friend
What do people mean when they say “the internet” in this context? The social internet of the 2000s?
I say this it feels unimaginative to me to say that the internet is dead. Social media? For the major platforms, sure. But the Fediverse feels alive and novel, and the Internet itself is certainly not going anywhere - could you imagine if email went away?
I don’t know, I am in large agreement that the internet has gotten worse, with that accelerating with generative AI. But I also feel like being driven away from Big Tech platforms has led me to learn more about how the Internet actually works and to discover topics and communities that I hadn’t before. Maybe the internet isn’t wholesale dead, just changing
I use LibreWolf when finding torrents, and I use Firefox for my normal day to day use. I wouldn’t call myself a power user though
What browser do power users use?
I’ve seen LibreWolf mentioned a few times. What’s the difference between the two?
Is it fair? Probably, yeah. But I don’t think it’s an effective way of framing or addressing the problem.
The challenge is always getting enough people to do enough of an action that it makes an impact. It is certainly more effective, in terms of reducing emissions, to target policy interventions at leverage points - like forcing energy companies to adopt renewables by law and banning further fossil fuel extraction.
Personal action can be useful to live in alignment with your values and to provide examples to others for ways to get involved in the climate movement, but we can’t consume our way out of this.