574
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2023
574 points (99.3% liked)
Climate - truthful information about climate, related activism and politics.
5316 readers
286 users here now
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.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Im not saying they're apples to apples, I'm saying that I was just wondering if we could design tires that were less conducive to creating microparticles
No.
It doesn't matter what they're made of, either the street or the tire is going to break down due to friction. One of two things is being washed down the drain. And you don't want it to be the road.
You could design both road and wheel to be steel, those would break down the least, but steel wheels need tracks and then you're back to street cars. Which are great, by the way.
For a less disruptive solution, no current material matches the qualities of vulcanized rubber that we want for tires. The rubber we use on tires is relatively slow to break down, can hold pressure, makes good contact with rough surfaces, and is cheap.
If you can design a material that's better for the environment that does all of that, you'll be a billionaire within a year.
That’s why trams and trains are useful. Metal wheels. Upfront costs are higher but ongoing maintenance costs are much lower.