Cryptoclysm's comments

Cryptoclysm | 2 years ago | on: Austria rail operator OeBB unveils new night trains

Two hours by plane usually ends up as four and a half in total when you factor in time at the airport, plus you can turn up at your destination first thing in the morning feeling refreshed rather than tired from travelling. Then once you factor in the stress, noise, environmental impact and delays that come with flying, the night train becomes a really attractive option.

Cryptoclysm | 3 years ago | on: Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste

It's easy to reduce problems down to an exclusive-or choice, but in reality we need to use all our cards at the same time to look after our planet.

Of course we should be reducing plastic waste, and at least where I live, I've seen a big push for the reduction of of single use plastics, both through legislation, savvy consumers and responsible supermarkets.

While the biologists work on plastic-eating enzymes, product engineers can work on sustainable packaging, logistics specialists can work on low carbon distribution and politicians can work on ensuring economic motives align with a positive future for our planet.

There is hope.

Cryptoclysm | 4 years ago | on: A no-beef diet is great – but only if you don’t replace it with chicken

Grass-fed cows gain weight more slowly, so they produce more methane per unit of meat produced. However, it can be argued that grass fed cattle farming is a net positive for Greenhouse emissions, since the carbon captured by the larger pastures can offset the effect of the methane emissions from the cattle. In some cases the entire farm's operational emmisions could be offset. Note that this is climate dependent. [1]

It is important also to note that if the land were instead used for growing crop for human consumption, then the carbon capture effect would be far higher, and that generally grass fed beef in the US are fed grain in the final months before slaughter. Other factors like water usage of cattle farming per calorie produced compared to human consumed crop can put even grass fed cattle farming in a bad light.

[1]: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/08/13/746576239/is...

Cryptoclysm | 5 years ago | on: Sid Meier's Memoir

I've been having a lot of fun in Planet Coaster and Planet Zoo by Frontier recently. Highly creative games and give a good rest from higher paced genres.