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Comment by davewritescode | Hacker News Reader

Asbestos and lead in gas were things that had suitable replacements. What you're asking people to do is give up personal transportation, which is to some their sense of freedom and in some cases the ability to head and cool their homes.

This isn't going to be easy not because it's technically difficult but because you're going to end up asking humanity to give up much the lifestyle it's grown accustomed to over the last 150 years.

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You illustrate precisely why I'm confident that humanity will never make any meaningful progress on the problem. People will talk about it, but when it comes right down to it they not only won't give up their comfort, they'll think it is ridiculous or impossible to do so.

Progress is easy - nuclear power.

> What you're asking people to do is give up personal transportation, which is to some their sense of freedom

This is an unusual POV unique to the US when compared with the rest of the world. When I lived in San Francisco, I didn't drive a car for ten years, and didn't miss it for one minute. There's also an incredible amount of recaptured freedom available when you stop driving, as most commuters are aware. This equates to having more time to walk and enjoy the world, more time to listen to podcasts and music and read, and less stress rushing and worrying about getting into an accident.

The vast majority of the world is not accustomed to a car-forward culture like the slowly decreasing majority of the U.S. is.

No, but it's primarily the US and other rich western countries that need to change. Those countries where few people drive a car to this day aren't the problem.

The top 5 CO2 emitters (2017)

% of world emissions, emissions per capita [t/person/annum]:

  China          29.34%    7.7
  United States  13.77%   15.7
  European Union  9.57%    7.0
  India           6.62%    1.8
  Russia          4.76%   12.3
  Japan           3.56%   10.4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_di...

This is misleading because it does not represent outsourced production nor accumulated emissions, which is related to building up wealth to a point where greener solutions can be afforded.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cumulative-co2-emissions-...

The US is supposed to do more given the damage it has done, but has been and still is dragging its feet. Same applies to the EU.

The parent also ranks the countries by % of world emissions rather than by emissions per capita, which tells a very different story.

That graph depicts cumulative (historical) emissions, which is interesting, but not pertinent to the question of how to fix up things for the future.

It is not "only" the West that is a problem here. The biggest current polluter is China. If you look at per capita data, you have among the biggest polluters the US, definitely, but also Russia, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Canada. That's not "the West". Per capita, China emits more than the EU.

Sure, "the West" needs to clean up its act (the US in particular), but this is without doubt a global problem.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-co-emissions-by-re...

There realy wasn't. Engines switched to fuel injection, which made the octane number less critical, and catalytic converters were mandated that made lead destructive to the car itself.

> give up personal transportation

Wtf? Nearly every human has personal transportation built in. It's called having legs.

>you're going to end up asking humanity to give up much the lifestyle it's grown accustomed to over the last 150 years.

Which is a totally reasonable ask considering the climate.

The issue is that you're asking young people to give up a lifestyle that their parents considered normal, in order to compensate for the pollution that past generations have caused.

>you're asking young people to give up a lifestyle that their parents considered normal

Which has already happened for every generation for the past few centuries. Peoples lifestyles change all the time. There's no need to ask, it is an inevitable thing that happens, you can't freeze time.

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