cymbal_king

Yeah and my rationale for deciding how much is a little involved... Essentially, carbon offset markets are either straight up scams or over hyping the impact. Instead I donate directly to charities doing good work related to the environment or the fall out from the climate crisis. The U.S. EPA estimates that each metric ton of CO2 emitted costs society and the environment around $200 in damage from things like natural disasters, civil unrest from displacement, extinction of species, etc. the average US household emits about 17 MT/year.

So around tax return season I go to FootprintCalculator.org and estimate how many MT of CO2 our household emitted the year prior. Then I set monthly recurring donations to the charities to roughly equal the amount of $200 times MT spread across the year. So it's fairly automated/low effort, and just comes out a little bit each month.

The types of charities vary, but they're all doing incredible work, here's some of them:

Coalition for Rainforest Nations (the operate globally with indigenous and local communities to do everything possible to protect rainforests and reforest areas. The donations really stretch far because they predominantly work in low income areas)

ProPublica (no paywall investigative news organization that has really hard hitting reporting that holds polluters accountable by government agencies)

Lahaina Community Land Trust (supporting Native Hawaiian victims of the Lahaina fire and trying to prevent their land from being bought up by private equity and billionaires)

World Wildlife Foundation (great work with preserving biodiversity and raising awareness of nature with the public. It's hard to care about something if you don't know about it)

Union of Concerned Scientists (political advocacy org)

Local food bank, urban green space advocates, and housing support orgs (the most vulnerable people in our communities experience extreme weather much differently than those of us with AC and a solid roof)

Also agree with the other commenter about giving time

Amen!

My gas stove was leaky and could have blown up my house. So we replaced that with an induction stove, and it's all around a better experience. Same with the water heater and the EV. All of these things plus insulating the attic have been improvements to our lives with the added benefit of reducing natural gas consumption more than 20% over the past year and saving about $100/month on utilities and gasoline. It's nice that we aren't pumping air pollution directly into our house when we cook anymore.

Every bit of change we make helps, because the climate crisis is not binary. but more importantly the people who can make these changes receive the greatest upfront benefits.

I view this graph differently, the Biden line is pretty close to the target line through 2030 before it diverges. Estimates decrease in accuracy further into the future, particularly if we're assuming the political calculus stays the same over the next 6 years. The Inflation Reduction Act was the most powerful climate crisis bill we were going to get with the current political situation and it has made a big impact. Particularly with building green economy jobs in swing states. As the swing states see more and more benefits in coming years, that will change the political dynamics of what is possible

Crusty finger

LED adhesive strip lighting for the back of my TV. Back lighting is super soft on the eyes and with color changing you can incorporate the color to match the mood. Playing Zelda, green. Watching sci-fi blue/purple. Halloween content, orange. Etc

Obligatory Technology Connections video.

It's weird that they're pushing for less innovation. Even if there's a slightly increased up front cost, better energy efficiency saves consumers a ton of money on the back end. Particularly if it's landlords buying the major appliances and tenants pay for utilities

The meat might not be exported, but the water intensive livestock feed sure is

Nah, this was a concession both Democrats and Senate Republicans were asking for. They hope to have a full budget deal finished before a new administration so there's a clean slate for either incoming president

The only issue I've ever had with my Ioniq 5 in 2 years was running over a screw and had to get the tire sealed. There is no oil to change, so the only regular maintenance is free tire rotations at the dealer.

The article says the focus is on kid-friendly outdoor areas like parks and near schools, which makes total sense as a place to start. Doesn't seem like it's everywhere outside being banned. And generally encouraging people to not take up smoking in the first place is wonderful. For people who smoke, quitting is the biggest thing they can do to improve their health.

Jealous y'all actually get any paid parental leave. over here in freedom land we force new parents to show up to work sleep deprived and neglect their babies. And Americans wonder why the birth rate is falling.

Edit: adding that if it's available, childcare for infants is as expensive or more than rent or mortgage payments. So you have to work to afford that

There are many instances where people who are indeed citizens may not have proper proof of citizenship, disproportionately among older Americans, college students, poorer Americans, victims of fires, and those who have moved around a lot. Passports are a relatively expensive document. Birth certificates and Social Security cards are fragile paper. Driver's licenses are also not ubiquitous among people who cannot afford a car. Higher bars to be able to vote like this disenfranchise millions of Americans, often historically marginalized racial and ethnic minority communities.

It is easier to prove residency than citizenship, because most people receive physical mail which is enough proof to register to vote in many states. Homeless shelters can also provide proof of residency. And there is very little evidence of undocumented immigrants voting in national elections. It's a Boogeyman because Republicans want to suppress the votes of marginalized groups that disproportionately vote Democrat. Undocumented immigrants tend to do their best to stay away from high risk things like breaking laws and giving the government their information because of the risk of deportation.