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Climate change: US emissions in 2020 in biggest fall since WWII

bbc.com

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Re: Climate change: US emissions in 2020 in biggest fall since WWII

#71

Post by kristopolous »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #24
kristopolous wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard people actually say this. The horror, the horror.

For a lot of people it was their only alone time.

It really says something. Roads have long served as our public space but we've managed to convert it into the private.

I don't mean materially private, I know we're fishbowls on wheels, but culturally private, as in people often refer to it as such.

It's one of the only times most people are disconnected from internet/work-tech because there is substantial risk of life and limb if they engaged (I know people have made this work regardless, I'm talking about cultures, not outliers)

Also this human need for privacy, if that's the reason to commute, is coming at the cost of literally destroying the planet.

There has to be a healthier way to satisfy these baseline psychological needs. Climate collapsing death machines may be how humans have transported themselves for a while but it shouldn't be the main go-to for how they are alone with their thoughts

Re: Climate change: US emissions in 2020 in biggest fall since WWII

#72

Post by ggreer »

elmomle wrote: post #23
StreamBright wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really, there are very few climate related deaths. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-deaths-from-nat... I think more people die from diabetes and covid than climate.

It isn't only climate change. Ambient air pollution causes >4 million deaths per year, per the WHO: https://www.who.int/health-topics/air-pollution#tab=tab_1

Almost all of that (3.8 million) is indoor air pollution caused by cooking: https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/topics/topic-detail...

Re: Climate change: US emissions in 2020 in biggest fall since WWII

#73

Post by jedberg »

nostromo wrote: post #69
jedberg wrote: post #2

And personal savings are way up. But it's unlikely either of these trends will hold after 2021.

Not true... US carbon emissions have been going down for over a decade, even as population increases. https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/carb...

Of course, by not by the amounts we saw in 2020. I suspect we'll move back to the previous trend line by 2022.

Re: Climate change: US emissions in 2020 in biggest fall since WWII

#74

Post by adventured »

citilife wrote: post #57
xur17 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Given 25 million have tested positive, by the prior estimates, that means a likely 250 million Americans have already gotten covid [4] Considering there are 328 million Americans, that would mean 76% of Americans have had the disease, which I believe would be sufficient for herd immunity. Given what case counts look like, I find that extremely unlikely.

They've been counting any flu related illness as COVID, hospitals also get additional funds for COVID-19 hospitalizations. Only a handful of influenza tests have even been ran: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/ In all likelihood, yes we are nearing heard immunity and we're done with the illness. Further, there's an issue with the PCR testing. Though there have been reports since August - October 2020, published in Nove…

> They've been counting any flu related illness as COVID

What you're claiming doesn't pass any sniff test what-so-ever. Low tens of thousands of people die in a typical year from the flu (in the US). The US is seeing that many deaths from Covid every ten days now.

There's no evidence the US is close to herd immunity. Deaths just hit a new daily record high two days ago. Daily case numbers have been raging at present high levels for over six weeks with zero sign of stopping naturally. The vaccines are clearly the only thing that's going to slow it during this season.

Re: Climate change: US emissions in 2020 in biggest fall since WWII

#75

Post by jedberg »

davio wrote: post #67
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a lot of people it was their only alone time.

I only listen to podcasts while driving, so my "learning" time has been drastically reduced

Same here, I'm way behind on podcasts. The only time I listened to them was when I was driving.

Re: Climate change: US emissions in 2020 in biggest fall since WWII

#76

Post by throwawayboise »

tryptophan wrote: post #56
gecko wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hydrogen as part is totally reasonable. It gives us hydrocarbon density without us needing to add to the CO2 in the atmosphere. The important thing to remember when discussing it is that it's an energy storage medium, not an energy generation medium. Most of the time I get irritated is when people treat hydrogen as the latter. But if our culture is just too damn wedded to cars for now, and battery tech just isn't the…

IMO ammonia makes more sense than hydrogen. It doesn't cause metals to become brittle. Its relatively stable. It doesn't require as low temperature or as high pressure to liquidize. It also stores ~50% more hydrogen per volume, as each ammonia has 3 hydrogen, unlike elemental hydrogen with just 2.

It's also highly toxic and a leak in the wrong place could kill thousands of people.

Re: Climate change: US emissions in 2020 in biggest fall since WWII

#77

Post by r00fus »

throwawayboise wrote: post #76
tryptophan wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO ammonia makes more sense than hydrogen. It doesn't cause metals to become brittle. Its relatively stable. It doesn't require as low temperature or as high pressure to liquidize. It also stores ~50% more hydrogen per volume, as each ammonia has 3 hydrogen, unlike elemental hydrogen with just 2.

It's also highly toxic and a leak in the wrong place could kill thousands of people.

And hydrogen substrate isn't similar?

Re: Climate change: US emissions in 2020 in biggest fall since WWII

#78

Post by cobookman »

snoshy wrote: post #68
cobookman wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Decentralization is also in the National Security interest. Makes it much harder for an adversary to take down large swaths of the US Grid.

This I'm not so sure about. It will certainly be different, but it's still an open question whether it will be easier to secure from a national security standpoint. There's the physical security aspect of this, which is as you say, hard to take down when it's decentralized. However, as power generation gets more distributed, we'll naturally start seeing more (if not most) of these pieces of equipment be controlled ov…

I'm not convinced that it needs to be internet controlled. Hopefully it uses protocols like BLE or Zigbee requiring proximity. That way such an attack would require being physically near the device.

Re: Climate change: US emissions in 2020 in biggest fall since WWII

#79

Post by r00fus »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #24
kristopolous wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard people actually say this. The horror, the horror.

For a lot of people it was their only alone time.

Are these the same people who didn't spend enough time with their kids/family?

Re: Climate change: US emissions in 2020 in biggest fall since WWII

#80

Post by retzkek »

jedberg wrote: post #75
davio wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I only listen to podcasts while driving, so my "learning" time has been drastically reduced

Same here, I'm way behind on podcasts. The only time I listened to them was when I was driving.

Why not set aside some time each day to listen? Take a bath, lounge on the couch/hammock, and enjoy that time not commuting.
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