Ice

@Ice@lemmy.zip

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why is society at large okay with euthanasia for pets but not for humans?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  One could argue that if euthanasia is legal, then there would be situations of: “Hey, granny is kinda taking too much resouces… maybe we should just pull the life support?” or “Okay my child has cancer and takes up too much of my money, and all this money would be wasted if the treatment fails, I’m gonna talk to the doctor and end this parasite once and for all”

  Which is exactly why I’m in favour of euthanasia for humans on a moral level (people should be able to decide their own fate) but against it on a societal level (it will likely result in people getting pressured into “choosing” death.

  The harm of the people who are unable to choose death (a.k.a commit suicide) on their own suffering is a lesser evil compared to people who want to live being pressured into dying (in my view).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What impact is the whole vegetarian/vegan diet having on the price of meat?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Compared to the massive increase of meat consumption in the population-dense developing world & other major influences on price such as improvements in the efficiency of meat production, the impact of the veg-movement is nigh negligible.

  The price impact is rather on the side of restaurants & grocery chains in their logistics, now requiring a more diverse offering to be able to serve both the traditional clientele and veg-customers. Spreading the same demand over a larger range of products leads to a lower per-item throughput. Hence slightly lower efficiency, more waste & more overhead, which leads to marginally increased food prices overall in western countries.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cold and expensive vs hot, cheap and eco-friendly: the contrasting histories of home heating in the UK and Sweden⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The sad part is that the backbone of our clean energy system, nuclear power, is being dismantled by persistent attacks from the environmental party. Since 2000 they’ve dismantled half of our nuclear fleet, and are commited to destroying the rest within twenty years.

  Meanwhile our national grid operator is warning about the potential need for rolling blackouts during the winter demand peaks, which coincide the very coldest days of the year (which are also dark and windless). This winter there were below -40°C in parts of the country, and when the overwhelming majority of households rely on the grid for heating, extended outages have the potential to be lethal. Meanwhile, the electricity cost for a normal single family home can exceed 1’500€ equivalent for a single winter month, which can be compared to the median wage after taxes (3’000€ equivalent).

  Wood fire heating is making a huge comeback, reaching levels not seen since the 80s. 2022 marked the first year in my lifetime when many built up areas smell like wood fire in the winter, and have done so every year since. Industry experts are talking about adding fossil gas turbines as a stop gap measure to shore up the system, until we can either expand hydro by damming up the last northern rivers (currently prohibited due to environmental regulations to protect fish) or increase nuclear capacity again.