Carbon footprint of homegrown food five times greater than those grown conventionally

In this article we see a very annoying, and omnipresent, journalistic habit, namely numbers without context.

We are presented with this information:

A study from the University of Michigan looked at how much CO2 was produced when growing food in different types of urban farms and found that, on average, a serving of food made from traditional farms creates 0.07kg of CO2.

The impact on the environment is almost five times higher at 0.34kg per portion for individual gardens, such as vegetable patches or allotments.

Ok, so we have two numbers here. But what do these numbers mean? What are we comparing with? .07 kg sounds like a little, but how much is "a little"? How much is "a lot"? How much is "too much"?

Pairing this with the headline, you think wow, five times greater? That's a lot. But assuming .07 kg is a small amount, then five times a small amount is still a small amount.

It's like this all the time, everywhere. In articles about population, economics, everything.

"not gonna lie,"

drives me up a wall. Of course you're not gonna lie. It is understood in society that we expect people not to lie.

my 22 year old son says this all the time. Makes me want to smack him.

motorbike guy wrote: Wed Jan 24, 2024 9:05 am "not gonna lie,"

drives me up a wall. Of course you're not gonna lie. It is understood in society that we expect people not to lie.

I totally wanna start my sentences with, "What I'm about to say might be lie" and see how people respond.

kokorodoko wrote: Wed Jan 24, 2024 7:05 am Carbon footprint of homegrown food five times greater than those grown conventionally

In this article we see a very annoying, and omnipresent, journalistic habit, namely numbers without context.

We are presented with this information:

A study from the University of Michigan looked at how much CO2 was produced when growing food in different types of urban farms and found that, on average, a serving of food made from traditional farms creates 0.07kg of CO2.

The impact on the environment is almost five times higher at 0.34kg per portion for individual gardens, such as vegetable patches or allotments.

Ok, so we have two numbers here. But what do these numbers mean? What are we comparing with? .07 kg sounds like a little, but how much is "a little"? How much is "a lot"? How much is "too much"?

Pairing this with the headline, you think wow, five times greater? That's a lot. But assuming .07 kg is a small amount, then five times a small amount is still a small amount.

It's like this all the time, everywhere. In articles about population, economics, everything.

"Get ready for the next surge! COVID deaths are 25% higher [than negligible] this year "

Once I was skimming through a book on basic writing. At the start it mentioned being economical with your words and to refrain from using phrases such as "I think..." By immediately expressing your thoughts without the prefacing it with a useless, obvious phrase makes your writing stronger. This has always stuck with me, especially in the age of starting a sentence with I mean. You mean? Really? Because I really wouldn't know what you mean other than you just stating what you think.

Is this a new thing? I mean, I can't recall it being used so abundantly in the past.

I'm sorry.

btw, "not gonna lie" is a Southernism that often means, "I realize that the expectation of me is to say X, but I feel compelled to reject this expectation and express Y."

As in "I'm not gonna lie, I think your grandmother is a dumbass."

Like a lot of Southernisms, like "I'm not mad about X," it has leapt over the top board of the paddock and has gone to run amok in the Elysian Fields of common discourse, unsaddled and untamed.

"I know you brought Publix fried chicken instead of making it yourself, but I'm not mad about it," means "Yeah, this is pretty good fried chicken, and I understand that you had a million other things to do before this family reunion, so thank you for bringing Publix." This is the correct way to use the phrase.

I'm not gonna lie, I think y'all are upset about some trifling bullshit when the country is sleepwalking towards Nazism.

Vaporizable offense? being a Nazi. That's the short list for me.

My 10 and 14 yo girls use NGL all the time, both in abbreviated form and in it's full articulated expression.

Frankie99 wrote: Wed Jan 24, 2024 10:45 am My 10 and 14 yo girls use NGL all the time, both in abbreviated form and in it's full articulated expression.

In a better world, ngl is short for https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/niggle

rsmurphy wrote: Wed Jan 24, 2024 10:17 am Once I was skimming through a book on basic writing. At the start it mentioned being economical with your words and to refrain from using phrases such as "I think..." By immediately expressing your thoughts without the prefacing it with a useless, obvious phrase makes your writing stronger. This has always stuck with me, especially in the age of starting a sentence with I mean. You mean? Really? Because I really wouldn't know what you mean other than you just stating what you think.

Is this a new thing? I mean, I can't recall it being used so abundantly in the past.

I'm sorry.

It would seem (damnit now I'm analyzing my own phrasing) that a lot of this verbal fluff is mostly there as a buffer while the brain machine is manufacturing a sentence. Tough issue brought up? "I mean....." [buffering], "I think...." [commence main point].

It's harmless, except when we hear it so much it feels appropriate then it's needlessly written. There's an indirectness to American (and perhaps all?) English as it's currently spoken that reads as manners. When speaking Spanish, I've been corrected that my "polite" syntax "Can I have...." (Puedo tener) is odd to the native speaker's ear, it's just not normally said. Instead "Two beers, please", which isn't rude or unheard of in English but has observable confidence over "Can I have two beers?".

(I think) my language and culture seem to contribute well to my being a nonconfrontational, codependent, people pleaser.

at the hot dog stand i'd spend my night analyzing confident syntax. "can i get...?"
"how about a ....?"
"I'll have a .... "

and at my current job:
name please?
"ummm.... singh."
you need more time to think about it?