Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.
As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades:
How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world:
Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:
Anti-science, inactivism, and unsupported conspiracy theories are not ok here.
The Cybertruck weighs almost three tons, so its enormous weight means it consumes an absurdly high amount of energy. Senseless waste that we as a society cannot afford. Add to that the sharp-edged construction: a safety disaster. The truck perfectly illustrates where the anti-social policies of the last few decades have led us: a few rich people drive well-armored into the disaster – and take everyone with them.
-Hendrik Fauer, one of the activists
At least it is electric. Throw the paint on a Dodge Ram 3500 that dwarfs the Cyber truck AND burns oil.
This is like protesting at a small free range chicken farm when there's an industrial chicken farm right next door.
There's validity in going after something that specifically symbolizes Elon rather than a random gas guzzler. Though electric cars are (debatably) less harmful than regular ones, Elon has done a lot of work in setting back even better solutions by promoting them over things like trains.
Also he sucks for a million other reasons but he's definitely a sort of wolf in sheep's clothing when it comes to environmentalism.
Y'all act like you can only throw paint at one car.
But they only threw paint at one car.
That’s so stupid. Yes it’s ugly, impractical, and dumb. But if it’s anything like the R1T or Hummer EV, it gets 50-70 mpg equivalent. That’s great.
that orange paint might actually improve its weather resistance
Have you ever seen one in person? I have, and at the wrong angle, that shiny stainless steel reflects the sun just about as much as a mirror does, blinding other drivers and pedestrians at certain angles.
So if anything, a paint job of any sort, vandalism or not, only serves to make them ever so slightly safer...
I've seen a single one. It was in the oncoming lane and honestly I and didn't even process it as a vehicle at first. My first thought was that it was the bumper of a semi.
Oof, damn. I can totally understand what you mean there. I never thought of it quite like that, the one I saw wasn't while driving, they just happened to park behind us at our city park and I got a couple photos.
So I had a chance to walk around it for a good camera angle. But yes indeed, bad angles are extremely blinding.
But now you got me sorta scared to see one while actually driving..
Quite a few in my area. Just the other day I saw one with a matte wrap and gold accents on the sharp edges.
How classy huh? /s
Also they are easier to spot.
SUVs are a fucking climate disaster, electric or no. Good on these activists.
Most SUVs are more practical than this thing...
(It's a low bar, I know.)
How do they plan to sell it in Europe when pedestrian survival change is a necessary part of crash tests?
That car is slicing everyone in half that it hits and even if it isn't that hood being steel will smash everyone's head it.
It is never going to be sold in the EU because of how horribly unsafe it is for everyone around it.
If i see one in Poland im gonna very lightly scratch it with a key so that the scratch rusts for ever.
That’s overkill, LITERALLY just throw saltwater on it. You would only need to scratch a surface that has some kind of coating. These are just bare stainless, and not even very corrosion resistant stainless at that.
Probably the same way it was able to be released in the USA, they paid the off the crash testers. USA NTSB is a joke. Whatever happened to their power to force cars to have safety.
The Cybertruck is a joke of a car and why it is compared here to even worse cars makes no god damn sense. No one who actually needs a truck for work or even privately will buy this piece of overpriced and dangerous garbage. Instead it will be bought by adult children with too much money. I am not even hating on these people, rather i hate on the people that greenlight this disaster. This is what you get when a brain dead ceo can simply bully the company into doing his pet projects. Pathetic.
I was excited for it when musk announced it at $40k, now I can do without.
I support the climate activists, bigly. I think they could have chosen a better target.
Every single time
Look honestly this is pretty stupid.
The cyber truck is a super expensive, conservative coded, pavement princess car. The people buying it are probably doing so instead of getting an F350 with one of those illegal mods that lets you pipe out black smoke. It's overall a net positive for the environment.
I feel like this is less about the Cybertruck and more about Elon. I get he's hateable, but people just end up feeling lied to when you use BS logic to pretend that the (supposedly) best selling EV pickup in the US somehow needs to be targeted by climate activists. Just deface his private jet or some shit.
No. Both vehicles are absolute trash for the environment. Just because it's an EV does not mean it is suddenly environmentally friendly. The stupid stainless steel alone uses up idiotic amounts of energy to produce and in the end it is still a several ton heavy vehicle instead of some form of micro car.
And no, no one really uses this or an ICE truck in a way that would require them to have one. Even people who haul shit in the back would usually do with a more sensible roofed vehicle, but that would be less "cool".
All of those big cars can and should be a target. If we go with individual motor traffic, then we should use vehicles that are as compact and basic as possible.
Elon is also supporting right wing authoritarians who want to dismantle climate protections and promote coal, oil, and gas.
And no, no one really uses this or an ICE truck in a way that would require them to have one. Even people who haul shit in the back would usually do with a more sensible roofed vehicle, but that would be less "cool".
Wait, no one has a legitimate use case for a truck? Like transporting building materials and tools? Large furniture and appliances? People who live along an unpaved mountain road, or work somewhere similarly remote, like forestry? Towing fifth-wheel trailers? When it snows here, I'm stuck at home until someone with a truck comes by to plow... They have large dedicated snowplows for the highways and stuff, but for out-of-the-way residential streets, the city contracts private pickup truck owners with their own plows. I'm glad they're around.
Like don't get me wrong-- The majority of truck owners pretty much never do these things, and it's an extremely wasteful vanity display for them. That's bad. Most people who buy Cybertrucks will not be doing truck stuff with them. That's bad too.
But I think some people have a good reason to own a truck.
We're talking about less than 1% here. And yes, most of even your examples do not require a pickup truck, or even your own hauler. Just look at other countries. People transporting tools? They have little vans or nowadays even cargo bikes. This whole pickup truck thing is very much an US fetish.
Why bother? The climate is gonna make them rust all by itself eventually, probably sooner than later going by the recent reports...
The point is attention and a false sense of accomplishment.