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Cement Produces More Pollution Than All the Trucks in the World

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141–150 of 249 posts

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

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Some say massive forest also transpire humidity. All this might be positive to dampen climate change (if done worldwide). Caveat though: higher humidity + rising temperatures = bad. The more humid the air is, the worse evaporative cooling works, which means it's that much harder for human body to keep its temperature in check. For example, [0] tells us that at 46 °C and 50% humidity, humans can no longer cool down…

I thought about large scale higher altitudes humidity but fair point (although the less humans the better the climate statistics say)

> (although the less humans the better the climate statistics say)

Yeah, I've seen those, but that's like observing that the best way to kill cancer is to kill the patient. Kind of missing why we bother with the problem in the first place :).

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

#142
post #63

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…

> The only way this is happening is if the planet gets depopulated of humans rapidly. Please don't tell me you're one of those "earth would be better of were we all dead" people. I can't stand that kind of post-modernist, nihilistic garbage. I'm not mister optimist, but still, that's way too far. Also, that kind of rhetoric is going to end up being a justification for some one very evil doing some thing very bad. > T…

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

#143
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Many scientific experts don't believe that enhanced technology can be the main solution. True, technology can be a part of the solution, but changing our values and life habits are much more important. Are you sure these are scientists? Because this sounds a lot like an ideological belief, not a scientific one. I definitely know a lot of activists who believe this.

Should we really take a gamble that engineers will come up with enhanced technology ? If the future is uncertain, we should rather do too much than too little. That is how insurance works.

Insisting on hardcore changing values as the main instrument of climate action is likely to backfire, however. Imagine if we had responded to ozone depletion by insisting people not use refrigerators and air conditioning versus just developing non-depleting refrigerants?

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

#144
post #133
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only way this is happening is if the planet gets depopulated of humans rapidly. Please don't tell me you're one of those "earth would be better of were we all dead" people. I can't stand that kind of post-modernist, nihilistic garbage. I'm not mister optimist, but still, that's way too far. Also, that kind of rhetoric is going to end up being a justification for some one very evil doing some thing very bad. > T…

> At some point, pulling energy out of thin air will end up cheaper than doing expensive drilling operations. A lot of people seem to believe that abundant clean energy is a sufficient solution for our environmental problems. A huge part of GHG emissions is due to deforesting and cattle, which has little to do with energy consumption. History also seems to show that giving humanity abundant energy will only lead to i…

Cattle likely won't change. I'm going to keep eating meat. And deforestation may not change due to exploding population. However, that doesn't mean we can't capture carbon. I've seen numerous promising business ideas to capture carbon and convert it into useful materials; I think it's more feasible to do that than to force veganism on every one.

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

#145

I was involve in trying to prove https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoclaved_aerated_concrete a viable alternate to concrete and red brick frequently used in household development. The only part I was unable to secure was seed capital. Does anyone know of program which invest in green/climate fighting `hard` start ups? Love to get in touch with them and revive my project.

Have you tried Bill Gates/ Breakthrough Energy Coalition?

http://www.b-t.energy/

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

#146
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is recycling plastic carbon neutral? The amount of energy required to chew/melt/process the plastic, the energy to transport the recyclables to the processing facility, and then the transportation costs to ship the decycled material to the buyer(s)?

>You can argue that the process itself generates co2, but so does producing virgin plastic. It's carbon neutral compared to the alternatives.

Can you explain that to me?

I do not understand the concept of comparative neutrality.

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

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought about large scale higher altitudes humidity but fair point (although the less humans the better the climate statistics say)

> (although the less humans the better the climate statistics say) Yeah, I've seen those, but that's like observing that the best way to kill cancer is to kill the patient. Kind of missing why we bother with the problem in the first place :).

I shall not try to sell my ballistics based therapy ..

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

#148

There's a video documentary on YouTube, complete with starting with PM Thatcher and her concerns about the coal miners union and the Mideast oil kingdoms and through the present with sun spots, etc. There is a lot from MIT prof Lindzen. The 800 year lag in the graph Gore put up is made clear. The Medieval Warm period, the Little Ice Age, and the cooling from 1940 to 1970 are also clear. The URL is https://www.youtube…

You can find a lot of figures in the IPCC reports.

https://www.ipcc.ch/working-group/wg1/

https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/

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

#149
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, would it not be more environmentally friendly to bury, not recycle, plastics back into the earth?

That would become a technical debt, especially considering we do very little to reduce our use of plastics, which seems like the obvious thing to do before any other change.

Well, do you think we would use less plastic if we stopped decycling it and trying to find additional uses for it?

Treat it as waste, not a raw material input for an inferior good?

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

#150
The worst thing you can do for the environment is have children, but that's not changing.

Cement, fossil fuels, deforestation, livestock etc are all symptoms of overpopulation and our inability to establish homeostasis anymore.

I don't see a solution to environmental decay into a negative feedback loop that wipes us out without some form of population control.

It isn't pretty, but we are running out of time and sitting around waiting for tech to save us isn't a viable strategy.

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