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America Is Backsliding Toward Its Most Polluted Era

(www.theatlantic.com)
150 points pmags | 3 comments | 10 Apr 25 12:48 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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RajT88 ◴[10 Apr 25 13:12 UTC] No.43643433[source]▶
I've observed this weird cognitive dissonance with outdoorsmen, since I am quite fond of fishing.

They tend to be a pretty hardcore MAGA bunch, but also don't like pollution because it messes up their sport. When you ask them about stuff like this (how can you support someone who pretty openly wants to mess up your pastime?), they get mad or change the subject.

I get it - people are complicated and can care about many things at once. Nobody likes it when someone is seemingly poking at their belief systems. Still - you'd think it'd give them some kind of pause.

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1. navane ◴[10 Apr 25 14:03 UTC] No.43643883[source]▶
Hunting and fishing are one of those hobbies that don't work anymore if everyone wants to do it. There's not enough room.

There's something in here about how low density people don't share values with high density people, because different situations cause problems.

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2. givemeethekeys ◴[10 Apr 25 14:14 UTC] No.43643990[source]▶
Most people are too lazy / busy to hunt or fish, so this will only become a problem if food becomes unaffordable compared to spending a weekend trying to track a wild boar or going fishing as a necessity.
3. chneu ◴[10 Apr 25 15:42 UTC] No.43645056[source]▶
You're summing up most of the stuff rural americans get upset about.

Rural americans have insanely high pollution rates per capita because most of their lifestyle is really resource intensive, which just doesn't scale.

Not everyone can drive a ford f850 superduty deisel to go get groceries. Not everyone can eat beef 3x/day. Not everyone can live on a few acres. Not everyone can hunt. Not everyone can have livestock. Not everyone can have 5 kids. Etc, etc.

A lot of rural americans just don't understand this, or don't care. To them it's "out of sight, out of mind". Then, once it comes to their back yard they lose their minds reacting to it because it finally affects them. When it happens to other people, those people can pull themselves up by their bootstraps. When it happens to them, then it's a national emergency.

I grew up in a rural area, hometown of 500 people. I grew up thinking this way. It's a pretty big mind shift.