| >The principle that a central authority gets to decree how we live, eat, breath, and think is inherently dangerous, especially when it comes with no evident limits. I don't agree that such an authority is inherently dangerous, this kind of legislation is specifically an example where danger is explicitly reduced. The below is an attempt to show this isn't just a noble gesture, but that environmental legislation has huge positive impacts, and is exactly the kind of thing we want a state doing. California generates most of its power through natural gas [1], which the burning of creates smog, which has measureable impacts on life expectancy. Early numbers from China indicate that the difference between highly urbanized areas and less urbanized areas amount to at least 5.5 years of reduced lifespan. [2] It may surprise you to find out that California, in many heavily populated areas like the Bay Area, where most people are living, actually has worse smog than that in Shanghai [3]. Let's try a simple model and do a back-of-the-envelope calculation of what this means for Americans: Let's say that in the bay area, the smog is (ass-pulled in direct contradiction to my above source, so we're being conservative) half as bad as in China's urban areas, and therefore longterm exposure to smog reduces life expectancy by 3 years. Let's say that long term, solar panel usage allows California to reduce natural gas burning for power generation, which ultimately reduces smog in a way such that it halves the impact on life expectancy to 1.5 years. There are 7 million people in the Bay area. If you're willing to buy the above model, you are saving 10.5 million years of human life just in the Bay Area by making the change, before we even begin to discuss external positive environmental impacts and subjective quality of life benefits of smog reduction. Last thought? The average human lifespan in America is 79 years[4]. If the above model is correct, such a change is equivalent to saving 132,000 lives. You don't notice that all this life is being lost because the effects are so diffuse. There are times to leap to your pitchforks about the harms of the state, but environmentalism definitely isn't one of them. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_California [2] https://www.ucsusa.org/clean-energy/coal-and-other-fossil-fu... [3] https://www.ozy.com/acumen/think-chinas-pollution-is-bad-try... [4]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expe... |