There's at least a grain of truth in that book. Try starting a business or producing something.

Look at domestic attempts to mine lithium or building semiconductor plants. Try building anything here.

“When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing; when you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods, but in favors; when you see that men get rich more easily by graft than by work, and your laws no longer protect you against them, but protect them against you. . . you may know that your society is doomed.”

Has there actually been a better century in terms of comfort and stability for most people

I mean.. they're making things for us generally. I don't think they're emitting recreationally. Look at a pie chart of total emissions and figure what you could cut to hit 50%. Do away with all transportation.. Boats planes etc and you're not even close.

Take China for example. A middle class person in China today lives like an upper class person compared to the 1700s. A poor person on average anywhere is doing way better than ever before..

I like trains too. Unfortunately they rarely go anywhere I need to go where I live. In Toronto they also sadly win out in the homeless urine category over my car.

Where I live approval on average takes a year or more. Permits alone can cost like 50k for a house. All of those things you've mentioned would result in court cases and awards ..

Honestly even residential houses that are to code are sort of trash aren't they? Like laminated wood chips and saw dust more and more every year.

How many other approvals are required above you to build? How long and at what cost ? Mostly curious. Here its pretty bad IMO. Here being Canada.

https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector

All aviation is 1.9% .. Private would be a vanishingly small amount of that.

Yes the BBC article is correct too. Just because CO2 emissions per km travelled are high doesn't mean they're statistically relevant in terms of total emissions. All aviation at 1.9% is basically not a meaningful amount of CO2 if you need a 50% reduction.

When weighted for KMs travelled a riding lawn mower is probably worse than a private jet by that logic.

Yeah I just- put that in another comment. Made a funny crack about privatising roads to incorporate the true cost of infrastructure with tolls lol. Might incentivize more people to use transit.

Private aviation is basically nothing in terms of emissions. Is pretty gross though.

1.9% for people to go back to crossing the Atlantic on the titanic .. No more air freight. No more sunny vacations for anyone. That's all aviation gone. Now you find me the other 50% on that pie chart and picture the miserable world you're advocating for. Then realise no logical developing country is going to comply with that plan as that means freezing them at their current level and that this isn't a fixable problem through reductions .. And chasing several thousand high emissions worth individuals is an utter waste of time .. Let's just agree to disagree I suppose.

Why is industry creating carbon? They're building the things we need and generating our power. Probably 100% of industrial CO2 emissions are conducted for us. This is just our emissions upstream from the things we consume directly.

Also if you cut 100% of your emissions you'd be dead. Breathing emits CO2.

Yeah the US is a really poor example of a free market.. I don't think one exists for health care.

Me too

Their*

Yeah.. I'm not a fan of that either personally.

Wouldn't that be to trade for imports? Because their currencies aren't accepted ?

Yeah pipelines cause harm .. But moving petroleum freight and truck is better? I have a pipeline across my property.. After construction its just a cleared path essentially. There's the risk of a spill of course but look at some of the rail disasters or oil tanker incidents .. The oil and gas are being moved for you and me .. we all use it and if love alternatives that work but we aren't there yet.

I'm not sure how we got turned around on removing zoning restrictions .. I agree that's helpful. Yes the invisible hand of the market .. What's the first word there? Look at all of the products you enjoy.. How they came to be.. People in the west are so lucky and have it so good and all they do is complain.

Anyway let's agree to disagree. When people power starts actually providing food electricity and transportation I'll see it as working ..

If you rented or bought a house close to a grocery store you'd mostly be able to do it. European cities were built when horse and carriage were still the best option. I think if city centres were designed to be car free and have everything organised to be walkable that'd be great for people who want that.. There are certainly a lot of situations where someone needs to have a car .. Here and in Europe.

A world where roads and public transit are all operated as for profit ventures without any tax ? Man now you're talking .. I'd love that