<story><title>17B life years could be saved if air pollution was reduced to WHO standards</title><url>https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/09/fossil-fuel-capitalism-is-cutting-our-lives-short</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>krisoft</author><text>I’m from europe and i have no idea what a leaf blower is. Our family didn’t have one nor did any family I know of. My family always had a garden with trees, and it was often my chore as a kid to rake the leaves together. Is the leaf blower an alternative to that?&lt;p&gt;Just asking because I want to understand how prevealent this form of polution is where you live.</text></item><item><author>amluto</author><text>There might be better bang for the buck by starting with the more highly polluting things. Other than CO2, things like leaf blowers are _vastly_ worse than cars.  Also, excellent electric leaf blowers are widely available and appear (at least at my local Home Depot) to be _less_ expensive than their gas equivalents.  I see no reason for a 5-year phaseout — one year ought to be plenty.</text></item><item><author>tgsovlerkhgsel</author><text>I expect pollution to be as much of a driver of the push for electric cars as climate change. It&amp;#x27;s something that affects people directly, immediately and noticeably - it stinks.&lt;p&gt;If I had a vote whether to ban combustion engines from my city (cars, trucks, mopeds, leaf blowers - everything), with a relatively short transition period (say 5 years), I&amp;#x27;d be in favor.&lt;p&gt;It would probably initially drive up prices of goods due to a shortage of electric delivery vehicles or the need to repack everything onto smaller local trucks outside the city, but I think it&amp;#x27;d be worth it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>version_five</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve lived in a few different places, and mostly really only encountered leaf blowers either for some larger scale work like cleaning up leaves on a university campus, or for cleaning debris from parking lots.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve recently moved to an area with single family or attached  homes on small lots, and inexplicably, everyone has a leaf blower. Most houses have a driveway and parking area, and about 10 square feet of lawn, but for some reason all the guys are out blowing leaves around... I&amp;#x27;m supposing there must be pockets where culturally that&amp;#x27;s what people do, I certainly don&amp;#x27;t get it</text></comment>
<story><title>17B life years could be saved if air pollution was reduced to WHO standards</title><url>https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/09/fossil-fuel-capitalism-is-cutting-our-lives-short</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>krisoft</author><text>I’m from europe and i have no idea what a leaf blower is. Our family didn’t have one nor did any family I know of. My family always had a garden with trees, and it was often my chore as a kid to rake the leaves together. Is the leaf blower an alternative to that?&lt;p&gt;Just asking because I want to understand how prevealent this form of polution is where you live.</text></item><item><author>amluto</author><text>There might be better bang for the buck by starting with the more highly polluting things. Other than CO2, things like leaf blowers are _vastly_ worse than cars.  Also, excellent electric leaf blowers are widely available and appear (at least at my local Home Depot) to be _less_ expensive than their gas equivalents.  I see no reason for a 5-year phaseout — one year ought to be plenty.</text></item><item><author>tgsovlerkhgsel</author><text>I expect pollution to be as much of a driver of the push for electric cars as climate change. It&amp;#x27;s something that affects people directly, immediately and noticeably - it stinks.&lt;p&gt;If I had a vote whether to ban combustion engines from my city (cars, trucks, mopeds, leaf blowers - everything), with a relatively short transition period (say 5 years), I&amp;#x27;d be in favor.&lt;p&gt;It would probably initially drive up prices of goods due to a shortage of electric delivery vehicles or the need to repack everything onto smaller local trucks outside the city, but I think it&amp;#x27;d be worth it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Cederfjard</author><text>I’m also ”from Europe”, and I’ve seen leaf blowers used by both private individuals and local government for the last 15 years at least. Did I see it to the extent that it was ”_vastly_ worse than cars” in terms of pollution? No, not even close. But it’s been there.</text></comment>