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Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe?

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Re: Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe?

#351

Post by pier25 »

singularity2001 wrote: post #89
netjiro wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Earth has also been a lot warmer than it is now Key here is rate of change, and what humans can survive. We are changing the climate many many times faster than ever before. Nature does not have the time to adapt. And the wars, famines and mass displacements coming from ecosystem collapse is like nothing we've seen in human history. Think we have a problem with a few million migrants? Try a billion or two! P-T…

Primates first developed when earth was 14°C warmer: http://gergs.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/All_palaeotemps_...

Sure.

What about industrial civilization?

Re: Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe?

#352

Post by Retric »

korantu wrote: post #341

The only solution to rapid reduction in co2 emissions that can be deployed right now at sufficient scale is nuclear. There are passively safe designs built right now. It can provide electricity, heat and desalination if lack of water is an issue. There is enough nuclear fuel in sea water to consider it an infinite source as far as humans are concerned [1]. Further, USA alone can be powered by its existing nuclear _wa…

Nuclear still costs far to much vs Wind and Solar.

If all greenhouse gases came from electricity generation then doing the France model might work, but it's much better to cheaply go 95+% renewable and use the savings to cut down on transportation and home heating etc.

PS: Grid scale solar is rapidly hitting 2 cents per kWh in sunny places. Nothing else is anywhere near competing with that.

Re: Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe?

#353

Post by unit91 »

wtmt wrote: post #336

Don't wait for others to do things or take decisions. That's going to be an uphill battle if you really want changes quicker. Start with yourself, and then push others (including friends, family, colleagues, corporations, politicians, etc.). A lot can be done if people take up changes on their own instead of waiting for politicians or corporations or "those other polluting countries" to "just do something" about it.…

> Have fewer children...think of yourself as committed to this cause...People will even try to discourage you...Stop looking at them or listening to them.

This sounds a lot like a cult religion to me.

Re: Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe?

#354

Post by pier25 »

CyberBoom wrote: post #339

This is a strictly political issue. Most people think humans can’t destroy the planet’s atmosphere. That’s hubris, and based on your politics. “Science” always thinks it’s proven right until it’s proven wrong.

Not really. It's about irrational humans and magical thinking.

Re: Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe?

#355

Post by dubya123 »

korantu wrote: post #341

The only solution to rapid reduction in co2 emissions that can be deployed right now at sufficient scale is nuclear. There are passively safe designs built right now. It can provide electricity, heat and desalination if lack of water is an issue. There is enough nuclear fuel in sea water to consider it an infinite source as far as humans are concerned [1]. Further, USA alone can be powered by its existing nuclear _wa…

Given that historically it's taken decades to build new plants from scratch this doesn't look like it will be nearly in time to make an impact.

Re: Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe?

#356

Post by bluGill »

codingdave wrote: post #239

Don't forget that the small things add up -- small things on their own won't change the world, but they change the lifestyle of one family at a time, and it helps both a little in the short run, and more as children raised in climate-aware homes grow up. If everyone starts making small changes, it will change demand, which changes markets, which changes politics. Some small examples: Walk to the grocery store every o…

Walking to the grocery store means you live within walking distance. That means zoning codes that allow a grocery store in your neighborhood. Most do not allow that.

Re: Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe?

#357

Post by dgudkov »

tobr wrote: post #19

Fundamentally it is a political problem, not a technological problem. We need high carbon taxes, we need to end fossil fuel subsidies, and we probably need to change our economic system to something that addresses the tragedy of the commons. But we’ve seen in recent years how technology can influence politics. I’d quote a tweet from Tristan Harris from the other day [1]: > In an hypothetical world, if Facebook were r…

Fundamentally, it's a consumer problem. Consumers don't want to pay more for using green power, or eat less meat, or use public transit instead of a car, buy an electric vehicle, or other things that restrict their comfort or degrade quality of life. Such restriction/degradation would be perceptible and short-term, while the climate threat is not perceptible and is long-term. Nobody really cares if the average temperature of the World ocean increases by 0.5 degree in 10 years. Most people see climate activism as fearmongering.

Re: Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe?

#358

Post by nicholast »

As the economics continue along Swanson's law (the photovoltaic solar panel equivalent to Moore's law of ever decreasing costs) I expect the biggest obstacle to large scale transition to a distributed grid of majority local generation resources will be regulatory hurdles by legacy utility industry to protect their business model. Some of these initiatives may even be channeled outside of the legislative process such as some DOE proposals under current administration to protect coal generation. Sorry this might go counter to the intent of this question but I think I'm getting at is that the single biggest factor will be political, and that the voting box is our strongest lever.

Re: Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe?

#359

Post by dplavery92 »

mahasvin wrote: post #320
titzer wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Earth will be fine. Life on Earth will be fine... TBH statements like these really grate on me. Yes, Earth will be fine in the same sense that you'd be fine if you surgically removed your arms, legs, eyeballs, ears, and tongue and then were fed intravenously and your waste disposed of for you. You might live a long life and have lots of nice dreams. The reality is that we are in early stages of kicking off a cascad…

I worked a bit around the data, and I am very sceptical about humanity ability to produce enough CO2 for The Climate Change. Volcanic activity was, is, and will be the main contributor to the CO2 pool. Humanity is not the geological force, regretfully.

That's simply incorrect.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/volcano-carbon-emissions/

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-qa/which-emits...

https://www.skepticalscience.com/volcanoes-and-global-warmin...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/06/06/how-...

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earthtalks-volcan...

Re: Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe?

#360

Post by JabavuAdams »

unit91 wrote: post #353
wtmt wrote: post #336

Don't wait for others to do things or take decisions. That's going to be an uphill battle if you really want changes quicker. Start with yourself, and then push others (including friends, family, colleagues, corporations, politicians, etc.). A lot can be done if people take up changes on their own instead of waiting for politicians or corporations or "those other polluting countries" to "just do something" about it.…

> Have fewer children...think of yourself as committed to this cause...People will even try to discourage you...Stop looking at them or listening to them. This sounds a lot like a cult religion to me.

Don't worry, it's not going to spread.
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