If you’re younger, I find worrying about the climate is a good entry into the hobby. It’s a looming threat that affects everyone, definitely a Big Deal, yet it’s a slow burn. Super accessible for novices and experts alike.

Bought a PHEV earlier this year and my “old fashioned” family quickly moved from “that boy ain’t right” to “you get HOW MANY miles per gallon??” And they still can’t compute that I can drive 50 miles on less than $2 of electricity and not a drop of gas.

The numbers make sense, people just need to be shown. It’s where the market is headed, no one should really be considering anything less than hybrid. When my wife’s old Civic dies, it’ll be replaced by a full EV.

Wow! If only I could get LibreOffice for free without ChatGPT.

My understanding is that they get into the soil and can then get into the plants. Then into your body.

It’s like if someone asked AI to make the least desirable movie.

Range anxiety is partially what pushed us to go PHEV. We really only use gas if we leave our immediate area, and on longer trips it’s the same as a full ICE car (just with much better efficiency).

I too hope for better batteries and cheaper EVs before my next purchase! Would love to see Chinese cars in the American market to humble these MSRPs.

Oh no! I was just saying how little conflict and migration we've had this last century+ of oil.

Could make everything within ~3ft of the road non-edible natives, either companion plants for the food or native cultivars to help pollinators (which in turn, will help the edibles closer to the house). So there's still a way to make this work!

Real question: what did people feed cats in that day, before kibble? Constant stream of chicken and fish?

Anyone taking any solarpunk actions this month?

We’re excited to be getting a battery for our solar system installed, and just today I’ve made new connections through my community time bank (I’m going to be officiating a non-traditional wedding, and possibly getting a much-needed haircut).

That’s true, it had a high skill ceiling, but there are a lot of casual worriers getting into it. Honestly great for the genre.

In an effort to answer my own question, I found this: https://startyourownisp.com/

What if a bunch of people went in on this together, essentially a co-op but for internet access? The more people who join, the cheaper it is to run.

IDK, maybe worth looking into. Nationalizing Spectrum and AT&T might be easier.

To a degree, even utilities are subscriptions.

Solar panels (and storage, for nighttime): owning your energy.
Well + filtration: owning your water.

Is there yet an equivalent for the internet? It's possible to own a node on a mesh net, but there should be some way to own your access to the web.

For real though, get your auto loans through credit unions. Checking and savings there too. And mortgages. Actually, just don't use big banks.

Would love to see something like this in the US, the booming e-bike market seems to imply the appetite is there for agile, higher-powered two wheel EVs, but it seems like what we have here is overpriced and underperforming compared to elsewhere in the world.

Hey, this is the art I borrowed my PFP from! Love how it captures the concept of mutual aid and the ways that communities overcome disaster and misfortune through cooperation, far more common than successfully making it through on "rugged individualism."

Also our tomato plants are popping off, new to gardening (first year getting anything usable out of it) and I’m DELIGHTED. Had some on a grilled egg and cheese sandwich with mayo for lunch today, it was edible art.

Is it FOSS?

I'm not commenting to dogpile on you, I think the others have explained why the grid is less of a concern than you might think.

Just wanted to add that we charge ours primarily using excess solar from our home panels, which is an option through our system management tool. It takes longer, but it means even less grid dependency (and virtually "free" vs paying for electricity, which you're right, will go up in price... though largely due to data centers now, not EVs).

I won't be surprised if this becomes the norm for EV drivers in the future, as a kWh in the "tank" is worth more than one backfed into the grid. More responsible use for extra power not immediately used.

Not necessarily. My PHEV (a RAV4) reserves a portion of its battery to use in the same way that a non-plugin hybrid does. The vehicle maintains a charge in that portion through regenerative braking and the motion of the engine, so the battery can never truly go dead.

Even if I never charged mine, I could still drive it as if it were a standard hybrid and continue to get ~39MPG highway. But in reality I do charge it and most of my miles per month are all electric (most PHEVs also have pressurized fuel tanks to keep gas from going stale when it’s unused for lengths of time).