Climate Change

[archibaldcrane]

All of the recent Green New Deal-inspired specific policy proposals have put a lot of ideas out there, but (like in the healthcare space) I worry that politicians are focusing on what is easy rather than what is necessary.

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sou...-gas-emissions

If we switch our entire grid to low greenhouse gas power and all our cars to EVs, we basically cut carbon emissions by 50%. That is not enough, but it is a start.

Any individual's contribution to our global carbon debt is insignificant and humanity has never been good at dealing with the tragedy of the commons problem. It is not realistic to expect that consumers are going to restrict their consumption and have an impact on global warming. The changes are going to have to be top-down and require innovation before they will be politically possible.

Renewable energy, even scaled up unreasonably, basically has no chance of powering the world. In 2015, it provided about 5,000 TWh of energy globally. We consumed 158,000 TWh and our consumption is growing by ~3,000/yr. If we added 60% of the current amount of total rewnewable energy, which we have spent more than a decade seriously developing, to the grid every year, we would only become stationary. We should do this aggressively, as Germany did and as the recent legislative proposals outline, but we should recognize that getting 30% of our electricity from renewables (like Germany) isn't enough.


We need to invest heavily in fusion and carbon capture research while we do stopgap stuff like windmills and solar. If we don't divert a few hundred billion dollars into solving this problem now it is going to be a lot worse for us down the road. This has been obvious since Al Gore campaigned on it about 20 years ago. I feel the most grim about humanity's prospects when I look at the politics around the clear and present danger of climate change.

The electricity calcs are even bleaker than that, because in a world where we are shifting transportation and building heating to electricity, the demand growth will be far faster than at current.

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[Byrthnoth]

I think my quotes were for energy rather than electricity, so it should already include that, but yeah I don't know if it includes transmission/storage inefficiencies.

We need major breakthroughs in carbon sequestration and fusion, on top of converting our fleet of cars to electric. Even zeroing out electricity and transportation from my above link, you still have more than 50% of the carbon emissions due to shit like refineries

[Outlaw]

[Athas]

If twenty buck was all it'll take, just write a check.

We'll post date it.

[archibaldcrane]

Fucking idiots.

https://twitter.com/bradplumer/statu...520545792?s=19

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[Cail]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/clima...suffer-result/

One million plant and animal species are on the verge of extinction, with alarming implications for human survival, according to a United Nations report released Monday.

The landmark report by seven lead co-authors from universities across the world goes further than previous studies by directly linking the loss of species to human activity. It also shows how those losses are undermining food and water security, as well as human health.

More plants and animals are threatened with extinction now than any other period in human history, it concludes. Nature’s current rate of decline is unparalleled, and the accelerating rate of extinctions “means grave impacts on people around the world are now likely," it says.

[6souls]

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/0...olar-minnesota

Xcel Energy to eliminate coal power by 2030 and extended nuclear to 2040.

The company said it also intends to keep its nuclear power plant in Monticello, Minn., running until at least 2040 — 10 years beyond the expiration of its current license — as it expands wind and solar energy generation.

Xcel said it will submit its plan to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission in July. If approved, the company said it would slash carbon emissions in the region by more than 80 percent by 2030, compared to 2005.

Under Xcel's proposal, Sherco 3, the region's final coal plant, would close in 2030, following the closure of the Allen S. King coal plant in Oak Park Heights in 2028.

Xcel owns thousands of acres of land around Sherco. Becker and Xcel have been working to bring in new companies to fill that space and replace some of the jobs that will be lost when the coal generators are retired. The city is working to land a Google data center.

[dasva]

Need to do a lot more than just getting relicensed and running plants longer. Need to join the rest of the world and actually build new ones... especially when closing down fossils

[D44kpunk]

China being China
https://nationalpost.com/news/world/...-depleting-gas

Shocked Pikachu.jpg

[Outlaw]

Three islands disappeared in the past year. Is climate change to blame?

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science...me-ncna1015316

[Cail]

Automakers Tell Trump His Pollution Rules Could Mean ‘Untenable’ Instability and Lower Profits

https://nyti.ms/31aIfml

[6souls]

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/0...l-fired-plants

The EPA has unveiled a new plan for less federal government oversight over coal power plants and shifting the responsibility to states.

Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, signed a replacement rule that gives states leeway in deciding whether to require efficiency upgrades at existing coal plants.

Wheeler said coal-fired power plants remained essential to the power grid, something that opponents deny. "Americans want reliable energy that they can afford," he said at a news conference. There's no denying "the fact that fossil fuels will continue to be an important part of the mix," he said.

Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va. was one of several coal country lawmakers on hand for the signing. He argued that power from the sun and wind was not yet reliable enough to depend on. "We're not ready for renewable energy ... so we need coal."

"This action is recalibrating EPA so it aligns with being the agency to protect public health and the environment in a way that respects the limits of the law," said Mandy Gunasekara, a former senior official at the EPA who helped write the replacement rule. She now runs a nonprofit, Energy45, that supports President Donald Trump's energy initiatives.

"The Clean Power Plan was designed largely to put coal out of business," Gunasekara said. Trump's overhaul is meant to let states "figure out what is best for their mission in terms of meeting modern environmental standards" and providing affordable energy, she said.

An Associated Press analysis Tuesday of federal air data showed U.S. progress on cleaning the air may be stagnating after decades of improvement. There were 15% more days with unhealthy air in America both last year and the year before than there were on average from 2013 through 2016, the four years when America had its fewest number of those days since at least 1980.

The EPA's own regulatory analysis last year estimated that Trump's replacement ACE rule would kill an extra 300 to 1,500 people each year by 2030, owing to additional air pollution from the power grid.

[archibaldcrane]

Want to talk about meeting the scale of the problem?

This is a good article to begin with:

https://issues.org/the-empty-radical...4537_Q.twitter

[archibaldcrane]

Oregon lawmakers have the votes for a big climate change bill, so Republicans have fled the state to prevent there from being a quorum to hold a vote

(you might recall this tactic when Scott Walker was gutting unions in Wisconsin)

The governor is sending the state police to bring them into the session. One legislator's response:

https://twitter.com/drvox/status/1141816289268133888

[Athas]

I'm sorry, did we just House of Cards season 2?

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[6souls]

Oregon lawmakers have the votes for a big climate change bill, so Republicans have fled the state to prevent there from being a quorum to hold a vote

(you might recall this tactic when Scott Walker was gutting unions in Wisconsin)

The governor is sending the state police to bring them into the session. One legislator's response:

https://twitter.com/drvox/status/1141816289268133888

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48737711
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...who-fled-state

It's state capitol was shut down over the weekend because militia & patriot groups threatened to march against democrats and provide armed support for republicans.

[Salodin]

So let them gather, and call the riot squad to diffuse the situation. If it was a bunch of black people rioting, protecting some people from being detained, that shit would have gotten violent real quick.

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[Fiye]

As we've seen before white militia groups are treated with the kiddest of kid gloves.

[6souls]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-48821306

Guadalajara, Mexico got hit with a freak hail storm that left ice up to 5 feet deep.

[6souls]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48810721

Europe is undergoing a record-breaking heatwave with sustained temperatures above 100 degrees. This past Friday, France hit an all-time high of 114.