The world is losing the war against climate change • Hacker News Board

Re: The world is losing the war against climate change

#131

Post by StavrosK » Mon, Aug 06, 2018, 4:20 PM UTC

vowelless wrote: post #91

I am a little out of the loop and so I have a few questions: 1. At what point in time can we arrest ocean temperature rise purely by reducing emissions? 2. Even if we stopped further rise in temperature, is the current temperature (land and ocean) sustainable, or is a chain reaction already underway that will increasingly lead to more and more turbulent weather? 3. Are there viable ways to extract greenhouses gasses…

How are we going to make the ice cube? Where's all the heat from cooling the water going to go? Back in the atmosphere?

Maybe we should just make a massive solar array, power a large laser with it, and shoot the beam into space.

Re: The world is losing the war against climate change

#132

Post by tmaly » Mon, Aug 06, 2018, 4:20 PM UTC

WhompingWindows wrote: post #12

If you look at global power sector emissions from 1998 to 2018, you'll see that while we have dramatically improved upon the energy intensity (energy/capita) and even are making improvements on carbon intensity (carbon/capita), but the sad reality is this: we are still using around 35% coal power in 2018, the same as we did in 1998. And the power sector is the easiest sector to decarbonize, by the way. If you look at…

Education is what needs to be innovated. We need more kids becoming scientists. Battery and storage technology need to be improved. We should be taking a multi-prong approach to coming up with working nuclear fusion.

Re: The world is losing the war against climate change

#133

Post by hodgesrm » Mon, Aug 06, 2018, 4:21 PM UTC

CamTin wrote: post #35

the_cat_kittles wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i dont understand. you completely omit laws in your suggested solution. we need to pass laws that prevent businesses from fucking everything up worse than they already have. you can innovate all you want, but i think you should also not elect people who are fucking STUPID about climate change.

Laws are a reasonable (thought still incredibly difficult) solution in the parts of the planet that have the rule of law. Large parts don't, and we need different solutions in those places because this is a global problem. As an example, see this report about cheating on an international agreement about CFCs ( https://www.nrdc.org/experts/david-doniger/chilling-news-spo... which) were supposed to have been phased out…

The best laws will help guide the economy to find solutions so we get everyone rowing in the same direction. Carbon taxes are an obvious solution though currently hard to pass in many places.

BTW I would not assume that just because such laws are hard to pass now that they will be in a few years. Climate changes are reaching a point where an increasing number of people are experiencing the costs directly.

Re: The world is losing the war against climate change

#134

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Aug 06, 2018, 4:21 PM UTC

okket wrote: post #6

I don't know if the "war against" theme fits here. There is no enemy but ourselves.

[deleted]

Re: The world is losing the war against climate change

#135

Post by gascan » Mon, Aug 06, 2018, 4:21 PM UTC

btrettel wrote: post #13

317070 wrote: post #2

Legitimate question: will there be a point where we speak about this war in the past tense, as in `The world lost the war against climate change'? How do we determine that turning point?

I wonder if future generations will think people were even serious about solving the problem. In this respect the war was lost long ago. The vast majority of people who believe climate change will have large negative consequences make no major changes to their lifestyles. As someone who rides bike for transportation largely to save money and stay in shape (I think climate change is a lost cause), the environmental cr…

IMO phasing out automobiles as the primary form of transit is a herculean battle the environmental groups probably don't feel like they have a prayer of winning. I bike & bus to work, but speaking on a grand scale cars prey on our weakness for comfort & convenience, and the cities we live in are designed to accommodate cars, not bicycles.

I do get frustrated with some enviro groups though, currently the ones who want to replace nuclear plants with natural gas plants.

Re: The world is losing the war against climate change

#136

Post by nitrix » Mon, Aug 06, 2018, 4:21 PM UTC

The war? It's not about war, but symbiosis.

Re: The world is losing the war against climate change

#137

Post by jmcgough » Mon, Aug 06, 2018, 4:21 PM UTC

sparkling wrote: post #110

Merad wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not in the US. The majority of the country isn't to the point of believing that climate change poses a serious threat, and among non-Democrats attitudes towards climate change are actually regressing: https://news.gallup.com/poll/231530/global-warming-concern-s...

Weather or not the majority believes in climate change is irrelevant. The simple fact is: while the US reduced its total carbon footprint by ~0,4% in 2017, it increased in the EU and China. No reason to point fingers at the US.

Classic tragedy of the commons. No one wants to do their part because others aren't trying hard enough to fix the problem.

Re: The world is losing the war against climate change

#138

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Aug 06, 2018, 4:22 PM UTC

colordrops wrote: post #102

chosenbreed wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The politicians largely reflect the people they govern. I don't think we can expect much better from them as compared to the general population...not to mention of course the vested interests and lobbying capability of corporations. And again corporations have shareholders, employees, etc...

> The politicians largely reflect the people they govern Is that really true though? The statement is so vague.

[deleted]

Re: The world is losing the war against climate change

#139

Post by radicalbyte » Mon, Aug 06, 2018, 4:22 PM UTC

gascan wrote: post #124

radicalbyte wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been looking into carbon capture recently because it's going to be vital to slowing down the warming (and buying us another 50 years for the transition). What surprised me is that I can cover double my two-car-owning European family's carbon footprint via planting trees in the UK at an annual cost of around $400. It'll cost half that to do the same in a developing country. We need a global carbon tax and we need…

Hell, considering the UK is heavily deforested, probably a lot of people who would appreciate those new trees too.

That's why I'm going to get trees planted. I grew up in the South West of the UK, when I was a kid I played in the woods and wildlife there. Now it's gone, replaced by houses.

So I figure it's worth paying extra to offset my carbon usage by double whilst rebuilding a little of what was destroyed in my birth country.

Re: The world is losing the war against climate change

#140

Post by Sir_Cmpwn » Mon, Aug 06, 2018, 4:23 PM UTC

okket wrote: post #6

I don't know if the "war against" theme fits here. There is no enemy but ourselves.

I dunno, painting oil execs as subversive national security threats and investing military-level economic resources into fighting a "war" on climate change just might work...