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Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 27, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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This is a good response and I'll add one more thing. Tariffs reduce the amount of stuff being produced because it costs more to produce it. If the price of raw materials doubles people are more thoughtful about what they produce. A lot of what gets produced just ends up in a landfill after x years. Maybe it is good for the planet if the world produces less trinkets that ultimately end up in the trash.

Aren't a huge percentage of greenhouse gases due to shipping? If you make more things closer to where they're meant to end up, there's likely an environmentalist appeal somewhere there as well.

The entire transport sector is 20% of CO2 emissions. But ocean shipping is only around 3%. Ships are incredibly efficient.

No, I don't think so. International shipping is very efficient. IIRC, it uses less carbon to ship something from Shanghai to NYC then it does from Chicago to NYC.

Perhaps you were thinking of the "pollution from one container ship = 1 million cars" meme that went around a few years ago. That was referring to sulphur emissions which are not a greenhouse gas and actually reduce global temperature.