Grand Solar Minimum - Is a mini ice age upon us?

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sportbikerider78 said:
So is it enough? If everyone lived like you, (still vacationing, still living in a normal house, still burning fossil fuels, still using plastic, still consuming consumer goods, still driving, still using electronics for pleasure/information) and living a modern 1st world existence...would climate change be reversed?
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Did I say it would be enough? No I don't know if it would be enough but it would be a step in the right direction. And if like me they worked to get better and better then eventually it might be enough. And by the way we are looking to down size to a house where we will not have to burn fossil fuels at all. I will be working off of that property so I will no longer be driving to work. I will still be driving for work but it will cut down on the driving. And you can have very energy efficient normal houses. They may not be quite as efficient as a tiny house but I am sorry I am not willing to pack my whole family into 500 sq/ft. We recycle almost all of our plastic. And I fix any products that can be fixed even when it may not make financial sense.

Ashful said:
'splain this, please. From my perspective, recycling may be the only activity that is less financially sensible than processing your own firewood. Now, I do both, but not because they're financially beneficial to me.
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It saves me money personally because I pay for trash removal and recycling is free. That is not why I do it but one bag of trash a week some times every two weeks doesn't cost much at all. If I was paying to dispose of everything we recycle also it would cost allot more
 
Interesting. I never related recycling to saving money, and still really don't, as the scale is too small to even consider a real factor in my life. But, I hate waste, which may sound surprising to you regulars.

I don't mind spending resources on things that bring me joy, like sports cars bearing obscenely large internal combustion engines, but seeing full garbage cans brings me no joy. Neither does leaving lights and televisions on when no one is in the room, the bane of my existence in this house.
 
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As landfills fill up, packaging will have to change. I'd be fine seeing packaging reduced.
 
Ashful said:
Interesting. I never related recycling to saving money, and still really don't, as the scale is too small to even consider a real factor in my life. But, I hate waste, which may sound surprising to you regulars.

I don't mind spending resources on things that bring me joy, like sports cars bearing obscenely large internal combustion engines, but seeing full garbage cans brings me no joy. Neither does leaving lights and televisions on when no one is in the room, the bane of my existence in this house.
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We only pay 3.50 a bag so saving a bag a week if that certainly is not a big financial gain. But it is still money saved
 
Ashful said:
'splain this, please. From my perspective, recycling may be the only activity that is less financially sensible than processing your own firewood. Now, I do both, but not because they're financially beneficial to me.
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Iv eliminated my trash man. So about $130 every 3 months. Not a fortune but probably worth about $30 an hour or more for me to eliminate it. And i know it dont cost me more than a few dollars to haul the bottles ,cans, paper and plastic to the recycle center a few times in that 3 month period. Im going there anyway to dispose of brush and pick up compost. Once in awhile i have things that cant be recycled like old carpet. The local landfill will take it for $3 a bag ,and i use 55 Gal drum liners so i get my $3 worth .
 
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sportbikerider78 said:
If you guys believe that modern life as we know it is destroying the environment and causing massive heating of the climate..why don't you stop consuming resources like fossil fuel, plastic, cars...ect?
How can you complain about everyone else while being part of the problem? Refuse to fly. Take your bike. Live in a tiny home..how many of you are doing this?
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While these things are important the single most impactful thing that any of us can do is to limit our family size. We chose to have 2 kids knowing that if all childbearing couples did we'd have a net population decrease. Yet we still live with tax codes and religions that incentivize more.
And yes, I'm sure many of us here do some of the things you mention but that net benefit is quickly overwhelmed by those that do nothing, their motivations likely based on misinformation of apathy.
I think its arguable that we have done more collectively, through environmental regulations (federal but based on CA), than the sum total of our individual efforts.(and seeing today that 1200 at EPA are about to lose their jobs makes this supposition particularly relevant).
 
I'm beginning to realize that not all trash bills are created equal. Mine is picked up weekly with a limit of 8 bags per week for 17.75 a month. This is loosely enforced as an occasional extra bag or two or an appliance now and then is picked up without issue.

So no incentive too recycle as a money saving prospect.
 
semipro said:
While these things are important the single most impactful thing that any of us can do is to limit our family size. We chose to have 2 kids knowing that if all childbearing couples did we'd have a net population decrease. Yet we still live with tax codes and religions that incentivize more.
.
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US population already in decline except for immigration, Just like europe. The agriculture industry,mostly meat producing is extremely wasteful. Uses 2500 gallons of water to produce 1 Lb of beef. Also animal herds claimed to produce more greenhouse gasses (Methane) than all transportation combined. Alarming !
 
bholler said:
Did I say it would be enough? No I don't know if it would be enough but it would be a step in the right direction. And if like me they worked to get better and better then eventually it might be enough. And by the way we are looking to down size to a house where we will not have to burn fossil fuels at all. I will be working off of that property so I will no longer be driving to work. I will still be driving for work but it will cut down on the driving. And you can have very energy efficient normal houses. They may not be quite as efficient as a tiny house but I am sorry I am not willing to pack my whole family into 500 sq/ft. We recycle almost all of our plastic. And I fix any products that can be fixed even when it may not make financial sense.



It saves me money personally because I pay for trash removal and recycling is free. That is not why I do it but one bag of trash a week some times every two weeks doesn't cost much at all. If I was paying to dispose of everything we recycle also it would cost allot more
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My only point is that it is really easy to say man made climate change is real. We are destroying the earth through our pollution. And it is the rest of you, not me. Every time I have a deep conversation to someone about man made climate change, I'm talking to someone who lives life exactly as it do, and I think it is all baloney. If they have been more financially blessed, they usually travel much more, drive more and have a larger house.
What does that say about the movement?

I'm not sure what to think of your guys comments. If you aren't willingly doing enough yourself to reverse man made climate change, that you believe is real, how can you ever say that another regulation or tax should be imposed on all of us?
 
semipro said:
While these things are important the single most impactful thing that any of us can do is to limit our family size. We chose to have 2 kids knowing that if all childbearing couples did we'd have a net population decrease.
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If you already have a house. Already heat it. Already have a car that goes to the same places if 1 or 4 people are in it. Already have clothes. How does having another really impact the environment?
 
sportbikerider78 said:
I'm not sure what to think of your guys comments. If you aren't willingly doing enough yourself to reverse man made climate change, that you believe is real, how can you ever say that another regulation or tax should be imposed on all of us?
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Who said we weren't willingly doing enough? I said I didn't know if I was but I am working to get better all the time. Is your argument that because we cant change it instantly we shouldn't bother to even try?
 
I don't agree with this "if you don't walk the walk you can't talk the talk BS" within the context of the current state of climate change and the environment. As an individual I could go to a zero carbon footprint and it would have no effect on anything.
 
Moved the posts on how to waste fuel real quickly to the pony car thread.
 
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