Recent comments in /f/Futurology

AwfulChief78 t1_ja9qo2n wrote

Reply to This “Climate-Friendly” Fuel Comes With an Astronomical Cancer Risk: Almost half of products cleared so far under the new federal biofuels program are not in fact biofuels — and the EPA acknowledges that the plastic-based ones may present an “unreasonable risk” to human health or the environment. by nastratin

So I guess we just have to wait for some kind of disaster and then blame it all on Trump for deregulation

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sigmatrophic t1_ja9qfiw wrote

Reply to This “Climate-Friendly” Fuel Comes With an Astronomical Cancer Risk: Almost half of products cleared so far under the new federal biofuels program are not in fact biofuels — and the EPA acknowledges that the plastic-based ones may present an “unreasonable risk” to human health or the environment. by nastratin

What happens when you put politicians instead of engineers inside regulatory bodies. Just saying. I'm so tired of hearing about how we're killing ourselves, getting fucked over, loosing equity, and just slowing being ground down. Guys like trump really do unspeakable harm during their tenure, and they are focused on implementing it.

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sigmatrophic t1_ja9pxve wrote

Reply to This “Climate-Friendly” Fuel Comes With an Astronomical Cancer Risk: Almost half of products cleared so far under the new federal biofuels program are not in fact biofuels — and the EPA acknowledges that the plastic-based ones may present an “unreasonable risk” to human health or the environment. by nastratin

As a former chemist... my complete lack of surprise. Bio fuel is incredibly Sulphur rich and dirty... also not energy effective. The less changes in energy states e.g. solar to battery the better.

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Psychomadeye t1_ja9pmai wrote

Reply to comment by Cerulean_IsFancyBlue in Their future is AI, not ours. by [deleted]

It seems that the industrial revolutions mainly benefit the countries that they happen in, and can be quite dangerous to others where it is not happening. Places that these revolutions see as raw materials to be consumed. The people who end up paying for the current digital industrial revolution would be in the places where it is not really taking place. And it is as you say, technology itself does not have agency. A common example is that the compass was invented by the Chinese but it would be another 800 years before they used it for navigation.

In the third revolution, it seems that there will be less imperialism. I'm not 100% certain as to why this is, as I'm an engineer, not a historian or economist. It's possible that the "colonies" are already established for the most part. It's also possible that the refinement of existing industry is the real issue. In the end though, I'm thinking this one is going to be mostly the same deal as last time but faster. That seems to be the pattern so far. Both of the previous revolutions brought about big social changes as well. The second industrial revolution gave us the 5 day workweek and the 8 hour day. The common counter that I've read about to technological unemployment is large scale public works projects.

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EDIT: I am also enjoying the discussion. It's nice to talk to someone who isn't full tilt doom.

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Necoras t1_ja9pia3 wrote

Reply to comment by secretqwerty10 in This “Climate-Friendly” Fuel Comes With an Astronomical Cancer Risk: Almost half of products cleared so far under the new federal biofuels program are not in fact biofuels — and the EPA acknowledges that the plastic-based ones may present an “unreasonable risk” to human health or the environment. by nastratin

Ironically, plastic -> oil is worse for the climate than just leaving the plastic in the ground. Plastic, which famously doesn't degrade (though that's not exactly true; there are bacteria which are evolving to eat the stuff) is just another name for long term carbon storage. Obviously we'd much rather have that in a properly designed and build landfill than in the ocean. But turning it into oil and burning it is just putting more CO2 from oil into the atmosphere.

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KreamyKappa t1_ja9ph2i wrote

Reply to comment by Honigwesen in This “Climate-Friendly” Fuel Comes With an Astronomical Cancer Risk: Almost half of products cleared so far under the new federal biofuels program are not in fact biofuels — and the EPA acknowledges that the plastic-based ones may present an “unreasonable risk” to human health or the environment. by nastratin

They don't know which chemicals they're talking about because neither Chevron nor the EPA will say which chemicals they are.

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Blu_Cloude t1_ja9p6z3 wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in Magnetic pole reversal by Gopokes91

Right?? Large companies literally have a monopoly on KNOWLEDGE!!! That should be for the PEOPLE!! why do they charge money for you to view scientific journals when the scientists themselves don’t even get paid that same money!!!!!

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Necoras t1_ja9p6cq wrote

Reply to comment by Honigwesen in This “Climate-Friendly” Fuel Comes With an Astronomical Cancer Risk: Almost half of products cleared so far under the new federal biofuels program are not in fact biofuels — and the EPA acknowledges that the plastic-based ones may present an “unreasonable risk” to human health or the environment. by nastratin

They don't know. It hasn't been disclosed yet:

>ProPublica and The Guardian did obtain one consent order that covers a dozen Chevron fuels made from plastics that were reviewed under the program. Although the EPA had blacked out sections, including the chemicals’ names, that document showed that the fuels that Chevron plans to make at its Pascagoula refinery present serious health risks,

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EmilyU1F984 t1_ja9ovus wrote

Reply to comment by Honigwesen in This “Climate-Friendly” Fuel Comes With an Astronomical Cancer Risk: Almost half of products cleared so far under the new federal biofuels program are not in fact biofuels — and the EPA acknowledges that the plastic-based ones may present an “unreasonable risk” to human health or the environment. by nastratin

No specific ones probably. The problem is taking contaminated recycled plastic and trying to make fuel that‘s actually safe to combust.

Shit ton of work went into refining gasoline, and plastics of various kinds will introduce elements that aren‘t present in oil in the first place.

Take PVC being in the recycled plastic, now you got hydrocarbons with chlorine as the end product.

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