I feel we’re nitpicking far too much for climate change in the case of at hone stoves and cooking. The pretense of climate change, and the implication of “well if you have a gas stove, you’re contributing” is going to cause more harm socially and psychologically than to the environment. At some point we have to realize that some climate effect is OK, and to live our lives. Let’s go after the big ticket items, like sea vessels or large scale fishing operations. Those are far worse than any modern car emissions.
Transportation accounts for nearly 1/3 of the US's greenhouse gas emissions and has been the fastest growing contributor. The vast majority of that comes from light and medium duty vehicles so personal cars and trucks.
If we stopping building our cities to require driving and electrify where we can, we'll see a huge reduction in GHG emissions.
The article isn't about warming-forcing emissions; it's about indoor pollution. A gas burner isn't a major problem for greenhouse gases, in the scheme of things, but the article is alleging serious health effects (I'm kind of dubious; I would wonder did they have a proper extractor fan venting to the outside...)
Home cooking might be a minor climate change issue, but home heating isn't. In Metro Vancouver 26% of total CO2 emissions come from home heating.
Accordingly Metro Vancouver wants to get people to stop heating their homes and water with gas.
If people think they "need" gas stoves that can be a barrier to moving them toward electric heating. If they "need" gas for the stove, might as well heat with it too.
Creating greater understanding of the health risks of gas ranges and that induction stoves are just as good if not better is good in helping make people more comfortable with the idea of shifting to electric next time they need to replace a main component of their heating system.
Yeah, home cooking is irrelevant for climate chage, but it is very relevant to people's health. Burning things produces compounds that are bad for you to breathe in, and this is what anti-gas stove articles talk about.
I agree with you. We could accomplish far more by creating a carbon tax for big corporations than if a million households converted to induction ranges. Even if every American household was using an induction range, the needle would only move slightly.
This is the big problem with climate change and how it’s presented. It’s far too ambiguous for any one person to be able to make an actionable difference. So companies that sell products (like induction ranges) execute a campaign that enables individuals to feel like they are making a difference while selling them a product
The irony is that the carbon cost to manufacture and distribute that new induction range will likely offset any amount of future carbon burned from simply continuing to use and repair your current range. If you’re in the market for a new range then yes consider induction.
But if your stove is working fine, the better action is to write to your elected officials and encourage them to make policies that have a far broader impact than how you make your eggs each morning.
