I'm from a big wind state. It's absurd to me how unpopular wind farms have been among rural folk. It brings jobs and revenue and has a relatively small land foot print. I just don't get why people don't like them, except for culture war stuff :/

That's a great point, I didn't consider the tech tree that leads to bikes also makes cars more likely :/

The only disease to be fully eradicated, 5 million people can live every year who otherwise would have died had we not defeated this disease

My favorite series of theirs: Vince McMahon (May 15, 2023), the Moonies (Mar 8, 2022), and Bobby Fisher (Feb 14, 2023).

Unfortunately, I don't know if it would be possible for another species to reach our level of technology or civilization. We built up our society off of easily accessible energy resources (surface-level coal being our first source of industrial energy). This energy excess allowed us to develop other sources of energy, solar, wind, nuclear, etc. But if you tried starting from zero again, you could never get to this point, at least along the same path, as you need a high level of technology to access any available energy resources. Thus, if any new species took our place, they could only ever rise to the level of the pre-industrial revolution.

I am really heartened by how solar continues to punch higher and higher above projections year-after-year.

Plus China is repeating our mistakes and building out a massive amount of car-centric infrastructure. Huge disappointment given the amount of resources and wonderful transit they have in major cities

Exactly. I grew up on a farm and there's no way a regular bus route would efficiently service us. Cars are still necessary but their usage can be greatly reduced.

For instance, in Europe most suburban/rural households can get by with one car. And in urban areas no car lifestyle is very easy to pull off

I really hope this forum doesn't fall down that rabbit hole

https://haleyheynderickx.bandcamp.com/album/i-need-to-start-a-garden

She has a Bandcamp where you can purchase her music. Otherwise search her up on other streaming platforms you may have

Lawns certainly have a role; hard to picnic or play soccer in tall fields of native grasses. Keeping a small patch as a part of ones landscaping is fine imo

If you ever find yourself with small logs or large branches, I recommend looking into Hugelkultur, which similarly involves building mounds of compostable organic material around large pieces of wood, which allows for the slow breakdown and release of nutrients over time