Nyssa

joined 1 year ago
 

TLDR: Pasture in former forestland, such as New England, can quickly be returned to forest, soaking up carbon. There is an interesting opportunity for synergy here, as removing cattle from a relatively small amount of land can have outsized impacts compared to the larger grazing areas in the prairie by pairing the removal of cattle with reforestation. These high opportunity areas could be a highly effective investment and much more financially and politically feasible.

Study discussed in article: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2405758121

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I do think insects as an ingredient in other foods, such as crackers, could be a more successful approach in increasing adoption. Taboos will be quite hard to change tho, I agree

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Choosing more appropriate crops for specific environments is so important. The State departments VACS initiative is a good start to promoting more resilient crops for Africa.

https://foodtank.com/news/2024/01/vacs-is-going-back-to-basics-for-a-climate-resilient-future/

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago

Some bills republicans are spending their legislative energy on: Liberty in Laundry Act, Refrigerator Freedom Act, Stop Unaffordable Laundry Standards (SUDS) Act.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

I especially feel for those who work in government. When the Trump admin placed restrictions on the use of certain terminology, it must really be hard to balance ones need for employment and doing good work and remaining true to scientific principles.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago

The atomization of decision-making allows entrenched interests to disrupt progress. If you've ever been to a city planning meeting, you can see how NIMBY homeowners block transit upgrades or affordable housing. Sometimes consensus is impossible

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Also, lots of state and local governments in the US have strong renter protections.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

When the damage is presented in spreadsheets and charts its easy to ignore the cost, especially for those pushing the piles of money around.

 

Hopefully a blow to planned obsolescence

 

These two helped launch the Svalbard seed vault in Norway and protect massive amounts of seed diversity for future use. Not to mention their work on bringing orphan crops back into production to support food security in developing countries.

 

Why do alt-history people never focus on infrastructure or innovation? What would have happened had bikes been invented centuries before cars instead of around the same time? How different would the built environment and our culture have looked?

Personally, I think centuries of more established bike use would have created an infrastructure that limits how well cars take off. Cities would have entrenched themselves in a cheap, dense manner of transit.

I could be wrong, lots of dense cities were wrecked by the car when it was commercialized. I'd love to hear any thoughts :)