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UN says “No credible pathway” and “woefully inadequate” to stop global 1.5C

bbc.co.uk

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Re: UN says “No credible pathway” and “woefully inadequate” to stop global 1.5C

#141

Post by throwaway5752 »

macspoofing wrote: post #70

There is no chance of removing existing CO2 from Air to make any sort of difference. There is no chance of meaningfully reducing CO2 emissions, because outside of Nuclear (and hydro/geothermal but only if you have the geography for it) there is no alternative to replacing fossil fuels. At some point the public will realize the lie of solar/wind as a replacement. We lost 50 years of greatly reduced emissions had nucle…

Nuclear is just a scapegoat. If it was easy or cheap, the free market would have done its magic. All manufacturing would already be done in a country with unlimited free and clean energy, even if other countries had issues with it. Plant costs, operation, safety, waste management, and non-proliferation are real hard problems. It's just lazy and wishful thinking that there's a deus ex machina if some people would just get over their irrational fears of radioactivity. It is only an easy way of saying "the so-called environmentalists caused global warming" by groups of people that have made no policy efforts, no investment, and have no actual industry expertise.

The surest solution to the problem is to keep using fossil fuels. That will lead to a desertification of the tropics, acidification of the oceans, and the death of about 5 billion people. Eventually, over the next 5-10,000 years, maybe 1-2 billion humans can sustain themselves on Earth near the poles and they won't have the opportunity re-industrialize on mined hydrocarbons because we'll have used up all of it.

Re: UN says “No credible pathway” and “woefully inadequate” to stop global 1.5C

#142

Post by aww_dang »

stuaxo wrote: post #35
bobsmooth wrote: post #29

I'm rich and live in a Western country. This won't affect me so I don't care.

Do you live far away enough from the coast ? Rising costs of food and energy won't be a problem ?

Isn't it the warmist agenda of restricting energy production and consumption which is driving increased energy costs?

As for living far enough from the coasts, are you referring to a meaningful sea level rise in the poster's lifetime?

Re: UN says “No credible pathway” and “woefully inadequate” to stop global 1.5C

#143

Post by doublerabbit »

KptMarchewa wrote: post #138
doublerabbit wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there is no alternative to replacing fossil fuels. At some point the public will realize the lie of solar/wind as a replacement. What lie exactly? Scotland had produced enough to power itself twice on Wind alone. [1] How is nuclear a better alternative than Wind or Hydro when - Nuclear is extremely dangerous with toxic waste needing special storage facilities. Criminal & Environmental contamination risks. - Disaste…

All the possible "extreme" dangers and disasters have end result comparable with 1 day of using coal at the scale humans are using it. >- You need a large water source for cooling, extracting, processing - Limited Resource Seas are going nowhere. Most NPPs are at the coast.

Salt-water is highly corrosive, you can't use salt-water to power the whole plant. You still need a pure water source.

Re: UN says “No credible pathway” and “woefully inadequate” to stop global 1.5C

#144

Post by abyssin »

globular-toast wrote: post #87

I used to be really depressed about this sort of thing. It caused me to severely limit my lifestyle out of a desire to "do the right thing". I didn't own a car. Very low consumption and minimal waste (no takeaway food, coffee etc., very frugal, didn't use things like paper towels and napkins). I cycled and walked everywhere. Didn't go on holidays abroad or even very far away. Then I looked around and noticed that eve…

I’m still on the side of cyclists. I don’t think I’d be able to stand a lifestyle where I’m surrounded by people in denial. I have a child but I don’t think I’ll raise her in the belief that only a comfortable life is one worth living.

I’m also wondering by who childless people expect to be taken care of when they get older, if not by their children in a broad sense?

Re: UN says “No credible pathway” and “woefully inadequate” to stop global 1.5C

#145

Post by pclmulqdq »

Schroedingersat wrote: post #111
ElectronCharge wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best way forward is to reject parts of the consensus Green approach. In particular, investment in nuclear, and a plan to augment wind+solar expansion with a large nuclear (and later fusion) buildout is the way to go. The rationale for this is that only by raising the living standard of the third world can the world’s population be stabilized without a major die-off (not to mention a reduced quality of life for ju…

> The rationale for this is that only by raising the living standard of the third world can the world’s population be stabilized without a major die-off I don't see how pumping billions of tonnes of heavy metal tainted sulfuric acid into the ground water of Namibia and Niger for Uranium royalties that are lower than the cost of cleanup and then putting them into debt they can't service for power stations that can onl…

Now do the pollution associated with lithium mining.

Re: UN says “No credible pathway” and “woefully inadequate” to stop global 1.5C

#146

Post by jmugan »

the__alchemist wrote: post #14

Neal Stephenson's most recent novel, Termination shock describes a near-future world where climate change's effects are becoming more visible and obvious. Without spoiling too much, it explores the politics of aerosol (sulpher) injection into the upper atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the planet.

I started reading that book but was disappointed. I live in central Texas, and I didn't recognize the picture he painted. Yeah, it's hot and often terrible, but his terrible didn't ring true and took me out of the novel. E.g, Waco as a big forest and fire ants eating electrical wires (that's crazy ants that do that).

Re: UN says “No credible pathway” and “woefully inadequate” to stop global 1.5C

#148

Post by psadri »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #96
eloff wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can build solar or wind plus some energy storage or long distance transmission to even it out for less than the price of nuclear and with income beginning quickly, not after 10 years. By the time nuclear projects started now complete, solar and wind will be mopping the floor with them ROI wise. Far from being a lie, we're in danger of them becoming the only game in town, for better or worse. Nuclear had so much p…

As long as you build 5-10x redundancy for solar/wind I don't see it, solar and wind are all over the place between the peak and valley outputs. Unless we find a "battery" storage technology that can smooth it out over say a couple of weeks, I don't think countries are going to go for it as the only grid power source. We have nuclear now, and climate change is a huge deal to solve, possibly end of human civilization h…

How about using solar/wind to synthesis hydrocarbon fuels and use that as the storage medium?

Re: UN says “No credible pathway” and “woefully inadequate” to stop global 1.5C

#149

Post by kelseyfrog »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #96
eloff wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can build solar or wind plus some energy storage or long distance transmission to even it out for less than the price of nuclear and with income beginning quickly, not after 10 years. By the time nuclear projects started now complete, solar and wind will be mopping the floor with them ROI wise. Far from being a lie, we're in danger of them becoming the only game in town, for better or worse. Nuclear had so much p…

As long as you build 5-10x redundancy for solar/wind I don't see it, solar and wind are all over the place between the peak and valley outputs. Unless we find a "battery" storage technology that can smooth it out over say a couple of weeks, I don't think countries are going to go for it as the only grid power source. We have nuclear now, and climate change is a huge deal to solve, possibly end of human civilization h…

Where does your 5x-10x number come from? I sense that it's a guess, but the cool thing about stats is that we can actually find a redundancy ratio for a given probability of shortage.

Re: UN says “No credible pathway” and “woefully inadequate” to stop global 1.5C

#150

Post by NickM »

globular-toast wrote: post #87

I used to be really depressed about this sort of thing. It caused me to severely limit my lifestyle out of a desire to "do the right thing". I didn't own a car. Very low consumption and minimal waste (no takeaway food, coffee etc., very frugal, didn't use things like paper towels and napkins). I cycled and walked everywhere. Didn't go on holidays abroad or even very far away. Then I looked around and noticed that eve…

It sounds like you're bitter because you think having all people take personal responsibility for their own actions is the only solution, and you don't see people doing that. I used to feel similarly.

But I think the real problem is not the moral failings of individuals; I think the real problem is that we've collectively built a system that rewards people for doing the wrong thing. If we can collectively decide to fix the system to reward better behavior, then everyone wins. This is still a tremendously difficult undertaking, but it at least feels possible to me.

So nowadays I try to spend my efforts pushing for systemic change instead of worrying about how much plastic I used today or whatever. In some cases this still boils down to individual action, like when I bought my first EV, but in that case I didn't buy it to try to cut down my own emissions, I bought it to try to help fund EV R&D, raise awareness of EVs, and help companies scale up manufacturing and whatnot.

Not only does working for systemic change give me more hope, it's also more personally satisfying to feel like part of a broader movement to build a better world, rather than feeling like I'm just one tiny drop in a bucket of individuals trying to limit their own damage.

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