Comment on "tHeRe'$ n0 rEpL@CeMeNt FoR dIsPlaCeMeNt!!!1!!!1!!“
Jentu@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 months agoBreathing in Micro-rubber/micro-plastics from disintegrating car tires aren’t fixed at all by electrification.
I can also hear ICE cars approach from behind when I’m cycling, but that isn’t the case with electric vehicles (which might be using “autopilot” and can’t see me on the road). I’m not sure if that whirring sound is present outside of low speeds, but I certainly can’t hear it with wind crossing my ears. Sometimes tire noise is audible, but not always.
On the other hand, ICE drivers are more likely to intentionally try to hit me soooo
Breathing in Micro-rubber/micro-plastics from disintegrating car tires isn’t fixed at all by electrification.
but even if you deleted all the cars, you’d still have small trucks, busses, fire trucks, etc.
perhaps instead of saying no to car rolling things, come up with superior ways to roll things?
cycles leave the same residue, their wheels are simply smaller.
If transportation is necessary, find ways to mitigate emissions as best as possible. If emissions are unavoidable, use the thing with least emissions (small-tired lightweight vehicles) until you research a solution to a tire material that isn’t harmful (which is being worked on I think). Busses mitigate a dozen or two cars. Local rail mitigates a few busses and a few hundred cars. Essentially, personal vehicles should be small and lightweight, and essential mass transit or city services should be large enough to serve an entire area.
Yup.
partial_accumen@lemmy.world 9 months ago
That problem isn’t fixed by bicycling either.
Jentu@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 months ago
But in the comparison of tailpipe emissions (0.02 mg/km) vs tire emissions (36mg/km), I know which one I’m more worried about.
Nick Molden of Emissions Analytics seems to think that the heavier the vehicle, the worse the wear on tires seems to be (though it greatly depends on driving style and torque). That’d probably mean heavy EVs and SUVs are the worst for this.
Not that bicycles are completely clean- but there’s probably a time in the future to worry about bicycle microplastics- after the cars have been phased out.
partial_accumen@lemmy.world 9 months ago
We’re talking about personal subjective measures, so there isn’t an objective “right” or “wrong” answer, but there’s a bit of a double standard to your logic. Here’s what I’m seeing from your stance:
It seems like your logic should follow:
You could argue “walking is too slow, while biking is faster and at least less destructive than worse alternatives for fast travel”. However, that would also seem to introduce “bicycling is too slow, while EV is faster and at least less destructive than worse ICE alternatives for fast travel”.
So you like bicycling, and there’s nothing wrong with that as it is purely subjective and there isn’t a wrong answer, but if you’re adhering to your logic, you should eschew bicycling for walking as its less destructive using an objective argument.
Jentu@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 months ago
I’m not sure if a study exists for it, but I’d assume walking produces more microplastics/km than bicycling because of how soft shoe rubber is and how scrubby the action is. Who knows. There is a study I saw that said that walking produces more CO2 per km than cycling, but I’m not sure if this is parallel to microplastic emissions.
The logic will make sense if you think that tailpipe emissions are so litte, it’s almost not worth considering in comparison to tire emissions. So the next step is to say “so how do we limit the microplastics in the air and in the ground on a necessary part of transportation”- the answer is to make it smaller and lighter. And if you want to go distances that you can’t get to by bike, that’s where public transportation comes in.