Climate - truthful information about climate, related activism and politics.

The US government of yesteryear recognized a problem, so they drew up legislation intended to improve fuel efficiency, and thus reduce emissions. But they recognized that certain trades required large vehicles that could never be that efficient. So they built in a loophole for vehicles over a certain size not counting towards the requirements being placed manufacturers. Manufacturers being the crafty hogs they are realized if they just increased the size of everything they wouldn’t have to follow any of the rules. Now you have a company like Ford that only has one actual car ( a muscle car at that) in its lineup. Everything else are trucks suvs and crossovers.

The government of today could rewrite these rules to make the loophole require business licenses or something else, but half of them refuse to see there’s a problem at all, and half of what’s left are in the pocket of the problem makers.

Not to mention they’re tremendously dangerous for everyone who isn’t inside. The fear of dying in a car crash meets the illusion of safety, when it’s being forced to ride or drive in a car that puts your safety at risk to begin with.

But what about my truck that is 65 tonnes of American Pride?

The problem isn't only the cars, but the people who drive those cars also tend to not respect the rules.

Bigger cars need to have more harsh road rules applied. Had a dodge ram 1500 go the wrong way around a round about as an example the other day and nearly hit me on my scooter.

If I get hit by a hatchback, I'm fine (it has happened before). Dodge ram? I'm dead

Simply requiring a truck licence and applying different rules would be enough

All my homies want a '95 Toyota Pickup instead of a '24 F-250.

The US needs to revisit emissions laws. We need access to smaller trucks. Very VERY few people need a tank on public roads. I'd love to get something like an S10, early 2000's ranger, or an older Tacoma sized truck. My 13" F150 extended crew is the largest truck I feel comfortable owning.

Meanwhile, people hate motorcycles even more

Challenging this. Maybe the problem is the constant appetite to change your car every year? Maybe if there was a push to have consumers keep the same car for 10 years (I've had mine 11 now) it would be overall better for the environment. I'd argue the biggest impact on the environment around automobiles is the energy taken to create it, not to use it once it exists. This is what worries me with the push to electric. Perhaps we shouldn't be pushing people to continue the same model of disposable vehicles except now they're electric. Maybe we should stop people treating vehicles like they're disposable.

This is my same belief with phones, computers, etc.

We have an underlying problem with how we treat things as disposable.