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Cement Produces More Pollution Than All the Trucks in the World

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Re: Cement Produces More Pollution Than All the Trucks in the World

#51

Post by the8472 »

cmutel wrote: post #46

In our research, we see that the easy alternatives are being used almost to capacity already, making future improvement difficult. For example, there is basically no unused fly ash in Europe, and it is sometimes imported from as far away as India. Similarly, burning wastes for "free" heat is also limited by the availability of waste (residues from chemicals industry, tires, etc). This is particularly true in areas wh…

What about silicate based cements that are supposed to be carbon-negative (they were in the news a few years ago)? Those come from mined minerals and thus not limited by available waste products.

Would carbon taxes help evening cost differences?

Re: Cement Produces More Pollution Than All the Trucks in the World

#52

Post by agumonkey »

midnitewarrior wrote: post #17

Telling a lie then saying 3 Hail Marys means you are forgiven for the lie, it doesn't fix the lie. As such, planting a tree to be forgiven for going on a flight that burns carbon-laden jet fuel doesn't fix what you did. Fossil fuels are excess carbon atoms sequestered safely deep inside the Earth. Unless you can find a way to put them back there, there's no fixing the situation. Planting a tree does capture carbon. H…

> all the carbon gets re-released over time back

May I question the veracity of this statement ? wood decay does release atoms back in the air, but some may be captured on the ground, some may be captured by the plants/trees nearby. I highly doubt 100% goes back airborne.

Also there are other factors with more trees, they interfere with winds, create shadows. Some say massive forest also transpire humidity. All this might be positive to dampen climate change (if done worldwide).

Re: Cement Produces More Pollution Than All the Trucks in the World

#53

Post by tim333 »

tyfon wrote: post #20
Ensorceled wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fundamentally, there is very little you can change on an individual basis that will make a real difference. By all means, lead by example, but we have to support systemic changes at all levels of government to actually make any head way here.

If everyone thinks like this nothing will change. You can do both. Campaign for political change and change your personal behaviour. I've done radical changes to my life at least last few years to reduce my pollution/co2 footprint and if more people think like this it _will_ help. So saying that there is nothing that can be done on the individual level is quite dangerous as I personally think over time this will have…

Dunno - if you look at the ozone hole business it was fixed by a global action to ban CFCs and the like. An individual stopping using aerosols or what have you wouldn't really have fixed things.

With CO2 emissions we have a lot of individuals trying to make changes and again it's not really fixing things - CO2 levels keep going up. It's a bit trickier than the ozone thing though.

Re: Cement Produces More Pollution Than All the Trucks in the World

#54

Post by elorant »

samcday wrote: post #33
midnitewarrior wrote: post #17

Telling a lie then saying 3 Hail Marys means you are forgiven for the lie, it doesn't fix the lie. As such, planting a tree to be forgiven for going on a flight that burns carbon-laden jet fuel doesn't fix what you did. Fossil fuels are excess carbon atoms sequestered safely deep inside the Earth. Unless you can find a way to put them back there, there's no fixing the situation. Planting a tree does capture carbon. H…

You're kinda just stoking my paranoia here. I hadn't dug too deeply into whatbuying "carbon offsets" for flights (as a eco-conscious consumer, that is) actually entailed. But I suspected it was basically just planting N trees to offset the carbon emission. To play devil's advocate, is it possible that planting the trees at least helps in the short to mid-term? So let's assume we don't run out of viable land to plant…

No, it doesn't. First of all, you have to account for deforestation which is already happening in unprecedented pace. So while you'll go around planning trees, in some other part of the world people are chopping them down to provide more land for agriculture or to support the demand for wood. So the overall net effect might be zero.

Aside from that, the fact is that you need a shit ton of trees to negate climate change. Planting 1.7 billion acres of trees would remove only 8% of yearly carbon emissions. Where will we find the land to plant all those trees? We simple don't have the real estate.

Re: Cement Produces More Pollution Than All the Trucks in the World

#55

Post by cheerlessbog »

tyfon wrote: post #11
thatfrenchguy wrote: post #5

One good thing the US and Canada does is to not use cement for houses ! It is somewhat negated by the terrible insulation in most homes in the US (and the fact that homes tend to last less long I guess). Does anyone have any data on how much gets emitted for house construction depending on the material ?

I'm not sure about the amount of gas, however it is quite common to make the ground floor of concrete here in Norway. However it's not solid, it has a core of Styrofoam to insulate so it. The rest of the houses are usually of wood/glass that is heavily insulated. It would be interesting to see if you could make the foundations out of wood or something like that instead. All new buildings has to adhere to very strict…

I hope that wooden building has excellent (and redundant) sprinklers. It didn't mention fireproof treatment of some kind. Grenfell showed how fast a tower can burn if it's flammable.

Re: Cement Produces More Pollution Than All the Trucks in the World

#56

Post by cagenut »

superdude264 wrote: post #22
ForHackernews wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the best lists is https://www.drawdown.org/solutions-summary-by-rank It's ranked in terms of low-hanging fruit ('these are the highest-impact changes we could make') rather than absolute harm, but the spirit is the same as the question you're asking. Realistically, the only thing you can do as an individual is campaign for political change: https://www.sunrisemovement.org/ http://climatehawksvote.com/ https://…

This is really neat. In this space, is the normal metric 'atmospheric CO2 equivalent'? Is this just so they can normalize the affects of all the different things that cause warming into one unit for discussion purposes?

yes: https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emis...

Re: Cement Produces More Pollution Than All the Trucks in the World

#57

Post by gingabriska »

sampo wrote: post #10
nabla9 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The list you provide is missing some man made sources of CO2 and methane. It's just CO2 emissions from fuel combustion. Meat production is almost as much as transportation, roughly 17%.

> Meat production is almost as much as transportation, roughly 17%. That 17% includes all transportation related to meat production. If meat was replaced by plant-based foods, not all of that transportation could be eliminated.

Probably one of the problem with meat is too much water required for its processing which against has a processing cost.

Re: Cement Produces More Pollution Than All the Trucks in the World

#58

Post by cheerlessbog »

officialchicken wrote: post #47
galangalalgol wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The us doesn't use concrete for residential walls (very often) but that is actually quite good from an insulation perspective. Hollow wood framed walls have a lot better r factor than solid concrete. We do have solid concrete foundations. Edit: hollow walls filled with fiberglass to keep the air still

> The us doesn't use concrete for residential walls (very often) but that is actually quite good from an insulation perspective That is an incredibly incorrect set of statements. The insulation value of concrete, it's R=0.52 per inch of thickness. A vast amount of housing in many regions across the world is concrete (including the walls). Obviously, it is more common in multifamily construction and/or hurricane prone…

GP meant that its good that concrete is less used, because it has poor insulation properties. You seem to agree.

Re: Cement Produces More Pollution Than All the Trucks in the World

#59

Post by tyfon »

tim333 wrote: post #53
tyfon wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If everyone thinks like this nothing will change. You can do both. Campaign for political change and change your personal behaviour. I've done radical changes to my life at least last few years to reduce my pollution/co2 footprint and if more people think like this it _will_ help. So saying that there is nothing that can be done on the individual level is quite dangerous as I personally think over time this will have…

Dunno - if you look at the ozone hole business it was fixed by a global action to ban CFCs and the like. An individual stopping using aerosols or what have you wouldn't really have fixed things. With CO2 emissions we have a lot of individuals trying to make changes and again it's not really fixing things - CO2 levels keep going up. It's a bit trickier than the ozone thing though.

Banning CFCs etc did not require people to fundamentally change their lifestyles.

Reducing carbon emissions does so and due to that it requires knowledge and action from the individual I think as a politician trying to change people who do not want to change is doomed.

It is a lot trickier than the ozone issue and I think it requires action on all levels from the individual to the UN.

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