Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.
As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades:
How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world:
Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:
Anti-science, inactivism, and unsupported conspiracy theories are not ok here.
I am sorry but it is fucking hilarious how many wealthy people over the years have condescendingly told me cooking with gas is better, even as they complained about how it annoying it was to maintain a gas stove and all.
Idiots bought into the most obviously bullshit fossil fuel propaganda ever...
Gas is better than electric resistance stoves, which are not the same thing as these new induction stoves.
For most of my life I'd cooked on a resistive coil-top stove, and only in the last few years was I able to use a gas, and even more recently, induction stovetop.
Induction is far and away my favorite, but between gas and resistive, I don't really find gas preferable to resistive. The only real advantage it has is quick heat control, but that can be overcome pretty easily on resistive stoves by either anticipating the slower heating/cooling curve, or simply lifting the pan or moving it to an inactive burner until the active one cools down to the desired temp.
I virtually always use cast iron cookware, which makes gas's ability to make quick temp changes less of a noticeable advantage. More noticeable to me was the disadvantage of the handles on my cookware getting super hot very quickly with gas due to how much heat escapes around the sides, and the inability to place flammable things over a pot or pan to prevent splatter (like a paper plate).
I also really disliked the idea of potentially forgetting a burner being left on, but with the flame out. That only happened to me once, but it was quite scary to walk into a living room smelling strongly of gas. And in a kitchen without outside ventilation above the stove, the pollutants from burning gas were noticeable, especially if the oven was on.
On my personal scale, I'd rate gas stoves at the bottom despite their slightly advantageous heat responsiveness, with resistive in the middle, and induction the best of both worlds.
Sure, but you write off the adjustments and coping mechanisms you learned to mitigate the disadvantages of resistive heating as if those are a forgone conclusion. That borders on a disingenuous argument.
Summary to my eyes: Ackshully, resistive is better if you're smart about it and anyone who doesn't think this way is just not as smart as me...
I wrote my personal reasons for preferring resistive over gas, despite the need to learn how to use it, which I prefer due to my own perceived negatives of gas. I actually live in a house with a gas stove right now, and I'm seriously considering having the kitchen wired for 240v someday just so I can install a resistive stove, since most of the time I use a portable induction cooktop in preference to using the gas stove.
Calling that disingenuous and cope is... Certainly an interesting viewpoint. It would be similar to suggesting that anyone who prefers or speaks of the merits of bicycles over tricycles is disingenuous and coping due to bicycles requiring a learning period to effectively ride them, where as tricycles have no learning period (despite coming with their own advantages and disadvantages).
Gas is not better than electric resistance stoves for one very serious, insurmountable issue, gas stoves give off a non-trivial amount of gas into the living area they are being used in, even when kitchen hoods are used. This is not something the gas stove industry wants to have a conversation about so we don't here in the US.
This was not, and is still is not, common knowledge. We definitely do need to spread the word on that. I only learned this within the last year or two.
You were talking about cooking (i.e., the performance in terms of how well it delivers heat to the food), so that's the question I answered. Gas is better than electric resistance in that respect. If you want to make a separate point about air quality that's one thing, but you didn't have to phrase your comments as bait.
Air quality can't be separated from judging a stove that sits smack dab in the center in of your home.
If you think that air quality is a built in metric to every conversation about cooking, then I think it's you who has unrealistic expectations.
I mean I have a naturally broader systemic view than most people and I know that just because you haven't folded the concept of cooking into my view of a Unified Field Theory encompassing all of existence doesn't make me smart and you dumb.
You are making food in an enclosed space that you are breathing in fool. Of course it matters. I am not going to stoop to this pedantic of a level to argue with you. If making food with your stove hurts your health and makes your body feel worse, it impacts the holistic experience of cooking and worse it hurts your health. Period, end of story.
All of those things are subjective experiences I have not experienced. Because ventilation, cooking frequency, and myriad other factors complicate the experience.
So go ahead and get on your high horse and whine about pedantry.
Period. Exclamation! Question mark?
If you have used a gas stove regularly, your health has been impacted to some degree, that is simply what the research shows.
Food lasts 30 seconds, health problems from gas stoves are over the course of many, many years. OP never once argued against your research, they simply made the claim that food is of better quality then when cooked on a resistance stove, which is true.
Have you ever actually cooked on a resistance stove?
I never understood why 'muricans kept using gas stoves. I haven't seen a single one in Europe in the past 30+ years.
I like gas for diversification of energy sources. When we had “snowpocalypse” here in Texas, I was able to stay running with a natural gas generator for some power, gas heat to stay warm and a stove to cook. The power draw would have been too high if I was electric only.
Yeah but the "snowpocalypse" energy crisis was in large part a serious problem for people because Texas hates Texans and privatized the electricity grid leaving it brittle and unable to adapt to emergencies or changes.
You are living in a functionally collapsed society in Texas, and if that is a reason to cook around a campfire, sure! I just think you have to contextualize that. I'll keep using my electric stove and go find social support services in an emergency if needed because my state actually gives a shit about human beings unlike the shithole that is Texas.
If you need a gas stove to survive in Texas because the state government is constantly trying to kill you in pursuit of the deranged and cruel interests of the rich, I can't really disagree with that in good conscience, but it is a pretty awful reason to have to buy a gas stove.
You should leave Texas if you can.
MN pretty regularly has electric outages due to storms taking down lines, etc.
They're fixed within hours. Because our state electric provider is under strict regs as to what they can and cannot do, and the state gov takes grid reliability seriously in a place where it routinely drops below 0 F.
What I'm saying is that you need to drag your state officials out into the street and [REDACTED] until they start acting like an actual government.
Moved from a condo with an insanely nice Wolf gas range to a house with a cheapo electric range that we promptly replaced with an induction range.
Never going back. Induction is fucking wonderful magic. So quick, so powerful, so controllable, and having most of the surface remain cool is such a nice side benefit too
I think the biggest magic of induction is ease of cleaning. Nothing gets burned on, ever. Just a spray of cleaner, wipe, move on. Saved me hours a year.
I moved into a house that already had an induction stovetop and I will never ever go back to gas again. It’s easy to clean, don’t have to worry about open flames, and heats quicker and more evenly. When I’m cooking, I can actually use the unused burners to place my ingredients on for easy access. It’s amazing and that’s not even getting into the environmental benefits.
Hmmm? Battery equipped stoves? I’ve had an induction stove for 12 years and there is no battery. What’s the story?
You might have a 230V stove. The ones they age discussing in the article are 120V capable but to offload the need for more power they use battery.
I had never even considered this to be a problem so when I read the article it just didn’t compute. Ta
I will not buy an induction stove unless I know what its pulse width modulation frequency is.
PWM is vital; I can melt chocolate on my stove today but “low” often is 100% power at 90% off 10% on and burns food.
Also making sure the boards and chips are hefty enough. I don’t trust Samsung and LG to lay enough of a trace on the board or use a sufficiently large heatsink on the switching circuitry that it’s not going to melt through when I boil water daily. I don’t recall details but last time I was looking into it, even some higher end brands had failure rates after 5-10 years (or sooner if the “power boost” or whatever was used because they cheaped out. My gas stove will survive the apocalypse, but whether it survives the Operation Epic Fail is another thing.
I have burned out three induction hot plates and zero gas ranges in my life (from $120 to $300 units). I keep getting new ones because it's something I can't live without, but it does make me hesitant to drop $4k on an induction range. I also kind of just hate glass stove surfaces for a bunch of reasons.
I don’t trust Samsung and LG….
My first induction stove was a Samsung purchased in 2011-ish. One of the circuit boards had to be fixed in 2021-ish by a third party I found on eBay because Samsung stopped making parts for my stove. A just under 10 year old stove.
My Whirlpool washing machine, bought at the same time as the stove, had an issue at the same time as the stove. Parts were readily available.
My new motto for appliances is “Has the company (name brand) ever made a cell phone or a television? Yes? Then I don’t buy their (large) appliances.”