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INTEREST: Japanese Environment Ministry Fights Climate Change with Moe

Oh yeah, climate change, such a scam. I mean, it's not like hundreds of scientists have proven it with massive piles of evidence or anything. And it's not like last weekend I went out wearing just a hoodie. In the middle of February. In Canada.

What they have to do is to put a tax on carbon emissions and end subsidies to fossil fuel industries (the world's governments give 490 billion dollars every year for the fossil fuel industry, just stopping those subsidies would already give an enormous push to decrease carbon emissions, adding a tax of 40 dollars on every ton of fossil fuel sold would also be an additional huge help) instead of stupid campaigns trying to brainwash the youth.

I dunno about that. In this area young people seem to be almost uniformly a bunch of environmental activists. All of the local shops selling super organic, locally grown, fair trade, low energy consuming, etc etc, sh*t are packed to the gills with "millennials" constantly. Maybe it's different elsewhere in NA, but I found that to be similarly the case in Seattle, NYC, and Toronto when I last visited.
You can argue that none of what they do has made a difference, but considering what kind of companies around here are raking in the cash, I'd say at the very least it's encouraging good things.

relyat08 wrote:

I dunno about that. In this area young people seem to be almost uniformly a bunch of environmental activists. All of the local shops selling super organic, locally grown, fair trade, low energy consuming, etc etc, sh*t are packed to the gills with "millennials" constantly. Maybe it's different elsewhere in NA, but I found that to be similarly the case in Seattle, NYC, and Toronto when I last visited. You can argue that none of what they do has made a difference, but considering what kind of companies around here are raking in the cash, I'd say at the very least it's encouraging good things.

Eh, All those "healthly foods" stuff is mostly just a fad, consumed just so the consumer can brag about doing it. Other than that you'll see them take to Twitter or whatever and go on about how we have to save the Earth but rarely do they do anything other than that.

The planet doesn't need saving anyways. We do. George Carlin said it best.

Vaisaga wrote:

Top Gun wrote: If Japan's youth don't care about environmental issues unless they have moeblobs chucked at them, then the country is screwed. It's not like our youth are any better.

I dunno about that. In this area young people seem to be almost uniformly a bunch of environmental activists. All of the local shops selling super organic, locally grown, fair trade, low energy consuming, etc etc, sh*t are packed to the gills with "millennials" constantly. Maybe it's different elsewhere in NA, but I found that to be similarly the case in Seattle, NYC, and Toronto when I last visited.
You can argue that none of what they do has made a difference, but considering what kind of companies around here are raking in the cash, I'd say at the very least it's encouraging good things.

Oh yeah, I've seen that. It's funny. But anyway, a good fad is still a good thing. I've been doing all of that low-consumption stuff since I was born and don't plan to stop. If more people pick it up, to be cool, or as a fad, or regardless of what the reason is, it's still a good thing.

relyat08 wrote:

Oh yeah, I've seen that. It's funny. But anyway, a good fad is still a good thing. I've been doing all of that low-consumption stuff since I was born and don't plan to stop. If more people pick it up, to be cool, or as a fad, or regardless of what the reason is, it's still a good thing.

There's still stuff like gluten free diets, where gluten is only unhealthy if you're actually allergic to it but non-alergics picked it up and started acting snooty about it. Now anyone asking for gluten free alternatives because they're allergic get lumped together with the snobs.

I'm going to agree that I prefer the look of the Ima to Mirai. I'm also going to agree that at least in my area of the midwest, the youth are somewhat more interested in conserving power than the older people (until you let them at 3D printers, nearly the least energy efficient mode of manufacture I've seen). Part of this is laziness. It's easier to install LED bulbs new and never replace them in a home, versus maybe having to deal with finding replacements you like for the incandescent bulbs. Another part is cost. A number of people I know bought things like light bulbs in bulk, expecting to replace them, and may still be working through that, or have bought florescents and don't see the RoI in LED's over florescent lighting (I really like the LED LTL to replace the 4ft florescent tubes, but many would need an electrician to install it, since it requires rewiring fixtures in most cases)

But as a side note, not all the things presented as reducing environmental impact do. A number of the locally grown foodstuffs around me burns more energy in winter heating than is burned delivering it via cargo ship or rail (Ton-miles per gallon of gasoline equivalent are very good for both methods, although sulfer from the Bunker-C used in many cargo ships is an issue). From a CO2 perspective, "organic" farming is worse than "industrial", because a lot of the things like chemically based fertilizers and pesticides that are manufactured or grown in, were created to make it cheaper to farm, in labor, equipment, consumable, or land costs. The manufactured fertilizer is more potent per unit volume and can be tailored to the plants, while organic ones (Mostly manure and sewage, suitably processed) needs to be spread over the field and plants, which is difficult to do with a crop duster.

My personal opinion on the best way to help the environment is to greatly reduce the volume of electronics that are thrown away, or sent to china for "Reclamation", instead of repaired or properly recycled. If products (especially cables) were designed to last, they would be more expensive upfront, but would cost the consumer and the environment less in the long run.

And my final bit of opinion fluff is that I think no matter if the climate is changing or not, that reducing energy use, and saving hydrocarbons (Fossil fuels) for the future is smart, because many plastics require a hydrocarbon feedstock to make, and saving energy saves money, both for the consumer, and on the utility side, as less equipment is needed to transport and switch the energy.