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Some ‘almost certainly’ unpopular thoughts

I’m reasonably certain most people realize that there is something amiss with our climate. If not actually amiss, then, at least, peculiar.

Many adults probably remember a time when there were colder winters, fewer forest fires, fewer deluges… you get the point.

All this begs the question, what can we do to fix this, and fast. People always want things done instantly. You know that, right?

You’ll be excited to hear (but not really) that a set of ‘quick fixes’ occur to me.

My suggested solution set is based on the notion that we could ‘easily’ get rid of some ‘really big polluters’; let’s get rid of those polluters that add little ( zero ? ) value to human civilization. Doing that could provide us with a popular, simple solution. What a concept!

Here are a few societal GreenHouse gas producers that seem to fit the bill. They use lots of electricity and are not very helpful to anyone beyond the producer (of the useless, costly, ‘stuff’).

Among those we would hardly miss (according to me) are:

• SPAM– all those little electrons being wasted on nothing productive. For more on this see: Spam Carbon Footprint: How Badly is Energy Wasted by Spam Emails? Does anyone truly believe society will lose anything important by getting rid of spam?
• Social Media– besides screwing up human social interaction and human governance what do the likes of meta (facebook) and Twitter (X), Truth Social really contribute? My thought is that aside from sharing a few funny jokes and images, they really just make life worse. By way of emphasizing my point, you might find the following article of interest: How Does Your Social Media Use Impact the Planet? Use This Calculator to Find Out.
• CyberCurrency– pretend, untraceable money based on mathematical rarity. Really now?!?! There’s no societal risk here. See: Crypto Has a Climate Problem ~ Digital currencies are booming. So are their emissions.
• Junk (snail) Mail- Old school, I know. But it does have costs. See: Let’s Ban Junk Mail Already ~ We waste paper on mail that nobody wants. Time to change that.

Of course there are other targets of opportunity, but most do have higher levels of cost and inconvenience. Loosely quoting CNN, other human activities that contribute significantly to greenhouse gas production include:

• The fashion industry is responsible for about 10% of global greenhouse emissions.
• Glass containers have a bigger carbon footprint than plastic or aluminum but ONLY when they are NOT recycled.
• Cement production might be generating up to 8% of global CO2 emissions.
• Certain foods are heavier greenhouse producers than others. Included among the signifacnt greenhouse gas producers are:
  • beef production
  • lamb production
  • crustacean harvest ( like shrimp and lobster fishing make up only 6% of the world’s fishing catch, but they account for 22% of fishery emissions)
  • cheese production is the fourth-worst offender for carbon emissions of the protein-rich foods
• Air-conditioning and refrigeration
• Fertilizer production can create greenhouse gases that stay in the atmosphere for more than 100 years, and are up to 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

The original source on the above list is on CNN. Follow this link.

I know this post is hardly exhaustive. It barely scratches the surface.

But, my point is that there are many ways to reduce our carbon footprint. Some come with societal benefits and rejoicing. Not everything has to be unbelievably costly, painful, distasteful and inconvenient.

Well I guess it does if you are engaged in spam, advertisement, social discord, ponzi schemes, politics…

..like Trump & Musk.

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For more details on some of the causes of climate change you might want to check out: The Causes of Climate Change: Human activities are driving the global warming trend observed since the mid-20th century.