<story><title>Sir David Attenborough makes stark warning about species extinction</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-54118769</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>LostTrackHowM</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve been watching Sir David Attenborough since I was a kid, and I am now middle aged.&lt;p&gt;And I&amp;#x27;ve known about species extinction since I was a little kid. They&amp;#x27;ve happened and keep happening. Little to nothing seems to have done to prevent them during my lifetime.&lt;p&gt;I feel powerless and have no idea what to do about it.&lt;p&gt;I mean things that will actually make a huge difference, not just telling myself I am making a difference by doing little things like not having a car, or re-using and recycling.&lt;p&gt;And pardon me for saying this, but part of me is ever so slightly disappointed Covid-19 is not a lot more deadly. I am a terrible person.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>celtain</author><text>&amp;gt;And pardon me for saying this, but part of me is ever so slightly disappointed Covid-19 is not a lot more deadly. I am a terrible person.&lt;p&gt;I suspect that if it was a lot more deadly, it would have triggered a stronger government response (at least in the U.S.) and ultimately killed fewer people.&lt;p&gt;Then again, I&amp;#x27;ve repeatedly underestimated just how incompetent this administration could be.</text></comment>
<story><title>Sir David Attenborough makes stark warning about species extinction</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-54118769</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>LostTrackHowM</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve been watching Sir David Attenborough since I was a kid, and I am now middle aged.&lt;p&gt;And I&amp;#x27;ve known about species extinction since I was a little kid. They&amp;#x27;ve happened and keep happening. Little to nothing seems to have done to prevent them during my lifetime.&lt;p&gt;I feel powerless and have no idea what to do about it.&lt;p&gt;I mean things that will actually make a huge difference, not just telling myself I am making a difference by doing little things like not having a car, or re-using and recycling.&lt;p&gt;And pardon me for saying this, but part of me is ever so slightly disappointed Covid-19 is not a lot more deadly. I am a terrible person.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>TYPE_FASTER</author><text>&amp;gt; I mean things that will actually make a huge difference, not just telling myself I am making a difference by doing little things like not having a car, or re-using and recycling.&lt;p&gt;I think if we all do more to make a little difference, we&amp;#x27;ll make a big difference as a group.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve been making a focused effort to buy food produced locally. Details on how this helps here: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.terrapass.com&amp;#x2F;eat-your-way-to-a-smaller-carbon-footprint&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.terrapass.com&amp;#x2F;eat-your-way-to-a-smaller-carbon-f...&lt;/a&gt;. Lettuce from across the country costs the same, and isn&amp;#x27;t as fresh.&lt;p&gt;We moved for a better quality of life, and part of that was reducing our commute. We were able to cut the commute back from 3hrs a day to about 30min a day per adult, if that. There&amp;#x27;s a calculator here that can help you figure out the carbon savings: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.epa.gov&amp;#x2F;ghgemissions&amp;#x2F;household-carbon-footprint-calculator&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.epa.gov&amp;#x2F;ghgemissions&amp;#x2F;household-carbon-footprint-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;When our water heater failed, I did some research and realized the state where we were living at the time would pay for a replacement tankless combined water heater and furnace. That saved us about $4k from the cost of the system, plus it is super efficient so our heating and cooking costs dropped, plus we had endless hot water for showers.&lt;p&gt;I realized one day it&amp;#x27;s like working on legacy software: if you look at it as a whole, it looks like a completely intractable problem. But if you start making incremental changes, over time you can change and have an impact.</text></comment>