With the recent advances of turning CO2 into other substances, such as propane, should we be focusing more on closing the carbon cycle and simply be producing fossil fuels from the waste products of yesteryear?
Naively, it feels like we understand C, O and H, better than we understand some of the rare metals we're now introducing in the name of climate change.
Like how deadly they are, microplastics and pollution from tire/road wear, noise in residential areas, the huge waste of area, expensive upkeep of infrastructure, how they make cities less inhabitable etc etc.
Everyone says they would love to live in a walkable city, but for some reason, at least in the US, the biggest gainers in population over the recent decades have been all automobile-centric cities (which are probably more accurately described as a large patchwork of suburbs). NYC would have shrunk due to out-migration to other places if it wasn't for foreign in-migration[0]. Chicago lost people 15 out of the last 20 years[1].
[0]: https://www.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/about/dcp-p...
[1]: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-census-chicago-me...
Well the US is never a good example for that, because the US notoriously completely screwed up their city planning w.r.t. cars.
You need to look at examples of cities that were not built around the individual cars to check whether that's possible or not, and whether people like it better or not.