Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe? • Hacker News Board

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

#371

Post by wtmt » Wed, Oct 10, 2018, 2:35 PM UTC

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.

Well, think of any kind of mass change that you believe is beneficial to humanity and I bet you'd have a similar set of points that seem cultish.

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

#372

Post by korantu » Wed, Oct 10, 2018, 2:36 PM UTC

dubya123 wrote: post #355

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.

Historically in US and Europe yes, but China Japan and South Korea are way more efficient in deploying nuclear, and for good reason. [1]

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2018/10/02/4-ways-t...

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

#373

Post by tomwhipple » Wed, Oct 10, 2018, 2:36 PM UTC

Start by voting for candidates who believe in science.

It seems odd to need to say this in 2018, but disbelief in clear scientific evidence should be a disqualification from holding office.

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

#374

Post by jandrese » Wed, Oct 10, 2018, 2:38 PM UTC

DoreenMichele wrote: post #40

jandrese wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me the scary part about climate change is the sheer scale of the problem. We burn something like 4.4 billion tons of oil each year. Eventually we have to basically un-burn all of that oil. That's a staggeringly huge amount of work and we have barely begun to stop digging ourselves deeper into the hole.

Walk more. Eat less meat. And pee on a tree. Do that every day. Track it if you need to. Spread the word if you like, though leading by example is more powerful than trying to lecture people. We are all just dust in the wind anyway. But you can choose what your little speck gets up to, at least to some degree.

That's entirely in the "stop digging the hole so fast" category. Except for the tree peeing I think.

Actually removing thousands of billions of tons of excess carbon from the atmosphere is still an unsolved problem. We can't do it with trees unless we find a black hole to stuff them into.

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

#375

Post by samatman » Wed, Oct 10, 2018, 2:38 PM UTC

chr1 wrote: post #126

When talking about climate change it is important to remember that climate on earth is pretty bad already and we need to learn to control it anyway. High (~5km) solar updraft towers look like a very promising way to do it. In addition to generating electricity they can generate rain, prevent storms by reducing the amount of energy in the atmosphere, and reduce the temperature by improving the convection. Large number…

I would love to see Australia take the lead on this.

It's a majestic notion and we should be trying it right now.

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

#376

Post by Tempest1981 » Wed, Oct 10, 2018, 2:38 PM UTC

We should focus our efforts where there is the most bang per buck:

- Cleaner energy for developing countries, esp. China and India. Pay for their solar panels, to prevent new coal plants.

- Research clean energy technology — solar, wind, hydroelectric. Drive maximum efficiency, and minimum cost.

- Raise awareness worldwide. Keep talking.

This documentary was informative: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/an_inconvenient_sequel_trut... (2017, 10 years after the original)

2018: https://www.eco-business.com/news/coal-is-in-decline-globall...

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

#377

Post by anonuser123456 » Wed, Oct 10, 2018, 2:39 PM UTC

Retric wrote: post #352

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.

In northern climates in the winter, people use hundreds of thousands of BTU per day burning fossil fuels to heat their homes. Translated to electricity, that's 30+kwh per day with a huge portion of that during non peak solar and wind.

In order to solve the energy problem, you also have to solve the heating one... and wind / solar currently can't do that.

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

#378

Post by CalRobert » Wed, Oct 10, 2018, 2:41 PM UTC

JBReefer wrote: post #319

CalRobert wrote: post #163

Well, we _could_ build a world where the majority of people: * Live in a very well insulated flat in the city that isn't made of concrete * Have meat and dairy only as a luxury item * Use solar and wind power for your heat pump and AC * Ride a bike or walk to work, or take electrically-powered public transport * Use non-luxurious sea transport to go on foreign holidays we'd be about there. But boiling today's young p…

People on HN seem to believe the default state of humanity is driving everywhere and living in the suburbs, when that's only true in particular parts of the US for the last 80 years or so. A frequent question I see about not owning a car is "well how could I possibly get groceries otherwise??" The only way we can address our individual footprint and our isolation crisis is to build real towns and cities again, but I'…

"People on HN", to me, seems like it should be "People in the US".

There are plenty of urbanists on HN. Anecdotal, but I swear if I post something like "your free parking is just welfare for car owners" it will be upvoted most of my workday, and then downvoted as Americans come online. But I don't have hard data for this (wonder if HN has a way to pull the comment score history over time...)

For what it's worth, my Brompton looks pretty cool at my desk, too, but that's less visible.

And yeah, all new cities are garbage. Absolute dystopian nightmares of design where letting your three year old play in the street is a death sentence. Never mind that when cars were new a NYC judge decried the possibility of kids being banished from playing in the streets, which of course was perfectly normal.

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

#379

Post by natch » Wed, Oct 10, 2018, 2:42 PM UTC

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…

There is also plenty of hydrogen in sea water. As with the nuclear fuel you claim is infinite, there are costs and complications with extracting it, though. So it’s a silly claim.

Nuclear has its own problems starting with the fact that it’s a highly centralized solution, with attendant problems following from that.

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

#380

Post by Retric » Wed, Oct 10, 2018, 2:42 PM UTC

anonuser123456 wrote: post #377

Retric wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In northern climates in the winter, people use hundreds of thousands of BTU per day burning fossil fuels to heat their homes. Translated to electricity, that's 30+kwh per day with a huge portion of that during non peak solar and wind. In order to solve the energy problem, you also have to solve the heating one... and wind / solar currently can't do that.

Solar hot water heaters are cheap and work very well for home heating outside the arctic circle.

In the US we mostly use them for pool heating, as anything else costs to much, but somehow they are ignored for other uses.