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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?

#411

Post by lolsal »

jonstewart wrote: post #16

Give money to Democratic candidates challenging Republican incumbents, right now. If we believe in evidence-based science, then all evidence points to Republicans being anti-science. You don't have to be a committed lifelong Democrat to see that the current Republican party is fighting climate change efforts at every turn and needs to be displaced in order for political progress on the issue to happen.

> If we believe in evidence-based science, then all evidence points to Republicans being anti-science.

I am conservative and tend to lean-republican. I am not anti-science. Please stop generalizing.

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

#412

Post by monktastic1 »

Juliate wrote: post #139

Indirect action idea (I wonder about it). Gather with other persons to invest a few shares in the major groups responsible for CO2 emissions. Not to have weight per se, but to be invited in shareholders assembly. And to be regularly loud about the topic of the group's responsibility. It's enough for 4, 5 distinct individuals to bring up related questions in the same assembly so that it bothers other investors. Bother…

If I'm driving the demand they're fulfilling, I'm probably not a good choice to complain. So I guess we have to find the guiltless ones first....

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

#413

Post by natch »

korantu wrote: post #400
natch wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well, there is plenty of hydrogen in the water indeed. If there was any worry that we are going to run out of hydrogen, and willing to pay hundreds of dollars per kg (uranium fuel cost), we would totally get it from sea water. In which case hydrogen supply would be technically infinite. As for your second concern, could you elaborate, why centralisation such a critical barrier to achieving co2-free energy production?…

Big government, big industry, crony capitalism, corruption, political control of an essential resource, politics generally, secrecy, coverups, payoffs, concentration of power, etc. etc. which you would not get or to a much lesser extent (verging on negligible relative to nuclear) with some alternative energy sources like solar.

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

#414

Post by thewhitetulip »

thinkcontext wrote: post #405
thewhitetulip wrote: post #344

Please start using Solar and wind as much as possible. We have amazing products available now. I have fiur solar lanterns, one flashlight, a 20k mah powerbank and a 14w suaoki foldable solar panel In a few years ehen I buy a vehicle, I'll buy an electric moped, a 60w suoaki solar charger and a 150wh suoaki power generator. That way, I will be using my vehicle on renewable energy at all times. We need to do this and f…

I have to take issue with your use of the foldable solar panel. Studies have estimated that commercial solar panels take 1-4 years to produce enough electricity to offset that used in their production [0]. This is for fixed panels, pointing south, at optimal tilt, during all available daylight hours. How many hours per day does that portable panel get used? It seems extremely unlikely to me that the average portable…

Earlier, I charged my phone using the grid.

I used grid while reading and writing.

Now, I have five solar products and I don't use the grid.

I also plant 10 trees yearly, I use my bicycle.

Doing something is better than being a cynic. The point isn't recuperating amount of energy spent in manufacturing solar pabel, batteries. It is to stop from further consumption of polluting items.

Sure, it wouldn't amount to much. I don't use more than 2units of electricity. We still run diesel trains in India, most industries dint use renewable energy. We need to make massive changes if we want to be carbon neutral

And I still don't agree with your comment. I have a phone that was manufactured using coal and petrol. I use the phone's half battery during the day by consuming even more petrol.

The least I could do is charge it using Solar. The goal of using solar isn't to be "offset within xyrs" it is to stop reliance on oil. It is to use sun, wind. It is to invest.

If we don't invest then nothing will happen. This might be similar to banks. Solar is like investing money in the market when it is abysmally low, sure, it might not offset immediately, but it eventually will. That's still better than money under the rug

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

#415

Post by thewhitetulip »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #345
thewhitetulip wrote: post #344

Please start using Solar and wind as much as possible. We have amazing products available now. I have fiur solar lanterns, one flashlight, a 20k mah powerbank and a 14w suaoki foldable solar panel In a few years ehen I buy a vehicle, I'll buy an electric moped, a 60w suoaki solar charger and a 150wh suoaki power generator. That way, I will be using my vehicle on renewable energy at all times. We need to do this and f…

I'd like to agree, but numbers don't add up. All the solar their is, amounts to 1% of energy use. Its not about mopeds, its about steel plants and oil refineries and shipping and heating and cooling. We're talking Terawatts, not Watts.

I totally understand and agree. But we can't afford to not do something. Imagine if everyone planted a tree in a pot in their homes. It isn't about the 1w electricity I used from Solar, it is a momentum. Slowly, 1million people will use solar and it'll be 1 million watt electricity! It is in the scale

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

#417

Post by UncleMeat »

berkoab wrote: post #299
UncleMeat wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not balanced. The overwhelming majority of experts in the field disagree with Lindzen, who is largely famous among laypeople because he is one of the few academics that deniers can point to.

Experts? That's exactly his point. They're far from being experts. What I meant by balanced was as a balance to all the views being expressed here. I probably misused that word.

I'd describe people with PhDs in atmospheric science who have published papers on climate change or other climate modeling as experts. These people largely disagree with Lindzen.

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

#418

Post by codingdave »

bluGill wrote: post #356
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.

True, but "Walking distance" is a nebulous measurement at best. How far can you walk? I walk 1.5 miles to my grocery store. Most of my neighbors say that is not within walking distance, but clearly that is a personal judgement, because I do it. And if we are talking about what changes we can make to our lives, expanding your perspective on "walking distance" is not a bad place to start.

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

#419

Post by Comevius »

seymour333 wrote: post #402

What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe? Start an economical catastrophe. We need to immediately, and meaningfully, move away from oil, gas, and other carbon heavy industries in any way that we presently have the means to do so. If everyone who is presently in the market for a new vehicle could afford to buy an electric one, we'd probably be in better shape. If every household could put solar panels and tak…

Electric cars tend to put out less CO2 compared to gasoline cars only if you drive them for more than 5 years and don't replace the battery.

https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/11/Cl...

And yes, 12 years is nothing. Countries could start replacing all cars with electric ones for free right now, CO2 would just go higher and higher.

The answer to this environmental catastrophe is not manufacturing new cars. If we would have stopped buying and using cars 40 years ago...

https://mayerhillman.com/transport/key-publications/

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

#420

Post by konschubert »

thedevindevops wrote: post #241
konschubert wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that these services take carbon out of the air and turn it back into fossiles . I guess that they mostly finance re-forestation. Then, you have to ask yourself: Would the new forest happened anyways and they are just taking your money as a bonus? Is the new forest going to be permanent or will it be removed and re-forested again in 30 years?

>Would the new forest happened anyways and they are just taking your money as a bonus? Is the new forest going to be permanent or will it be removed and re-forested again in 30 years? Perhaps, in decades/centuries a new forest might happen naturally. I should hope - if you're paying for it - that it not be permanent, carbon capture in trees happens fastest at the beginning of their lifecycle so by harvesting and re-f…

If you harvest the wood and burn it/let it rot then the carbon will be released back into the atmosphere.

Of course you might make furniture from the wood, but it will replace other furniture that then gets burned in place.

A forest only holds carbon, it doesn't continuously remove it.

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