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The polar vortex is hitting the brakes

climate.gov

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Re: The polar vortex is hitting the brakes

#181

Post by renewiltord »

rob74 wrote: post #165
renewiltord wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the best things to come out of destroying environmentalism is that we can finally get working on renewable energy instead of being blocked by suicidal environmentalists who find wind farms too ugly.

I think you're confusing environmentalists with NIMBYs who use (among others) environmental arguments to argue against projects they don't like.

Scratch an environmentalist and a NIMBY bleeds. I think we’ve seen the effect in America in general and California in particular. The Sierra Club is against infill housing to protect views.

Re: The polar vortex is hitting the brakes

#182

Post by ars »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #98
OKRainbowKid wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why acknowledgment of climate change would lead to nuclear over solar/wind.

There are no "unsolved problems" for nuclear (because the safe storage of fissile waste for 10k years isn't a problem we need to solve, apparently). By contrast, getting solar+wind fully up and running requires totally solving the storage problem. Plus the libs love it. Hence ... nuclear.

There is no storage problem.

A breeder reactor plus reprocessing means there is no waste in the first place, and also gives us 100 to 1000 times as much usable uranium.

Re: The polar vortex is hitting the brakes

#183

Post by bruce511 »

qball wrote: post #105
OKRainbowKid wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why acknowledgment of climate change would lead to nuclear over solar/wind.

Because it's the one green solution that actually works as base load (other than hydroelectricity, but that's terrain-dependent), works 24/7 without any other affordances, and doesn't open you up to dependence on other nations to anywhere near the same degree. Solar and wind are only cheap because a foreign nation makes the parts (if they were made domestically they wouldn't be cost-competitive, obviously). So in 20…

One minor counterpoint;

Solar panels won't start degrading in 20 years. Their degrading is linear and starts when you install them. As a very rough guide you can think of it as 1% per year.

The 20-year horizon therefore is not fixed. It's just a round number. There's a point at which it makes sense to add panels (or replace them if you are space constrained.)

Once large numbers of panels start getting replaced you may see them reused in space-available places, or potentially 'reconditioned' to extend their life. Think of it as similar to second-hand cars.

Of course if the price keeps dropping these avenues are less attractive. And if you are space constrained there are already space improvements that may make changing desirable well before 20 years.

Finally, lots of things we use are made elsewhere. And we make things others use. By trading our excess for their excess we create a trading relationship where both sides operate in good faith because it is in their advantage to do so.

The current climate, where the US operates in bad faith, and seems intent on damaging trade relationships, does not encourage other countries to behave well in the future (regardless of the motivations you (project? expect?) from them in the future.

Re: The polar vortex is hitting the brakes

#184

Post by neuroelectron »

tdhz77 wrote: post #39
neuroelectron wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like the DOGE cuts were overhyped after all. Honestly, anything connected to Trump is overhyped. He has a protective aura of noise. You're not going to figure out what's going on by just reading headlines.

You offer no evidence, but you have convinced yourself so obviously abstracted from the ground that time will prove you were right. It’s a foolish path and I urge you to listen to what is happening. Within the last week government data is no longer accessible to researchers. Long standing government groups and private that study these areas are locked out. Overhyped? No. Like the manager that cuts the budget, gets th…

Palantir seems to be chugging along just fine.

Re: The polar vortex is hitting the brakes

#185

Post by idiotsecant »

jMyles wrote: post #95
zeagle wrote: post #6

Interesting article. We are past the usual -20 or lower six weeks where I am so feels like a typical year. If I choose a random northern place like Rankin Inlet NU it is still cold up there with a low of -33 tonight. It is a sign of the times when I think huh, climate.gov… is that a reputable source?

.gov sources being disreputable is not new. My generation grew up with the food pyramid. The silver lining is that understanding of this disrepute is nearing universality.

The food pyramid is notable because it was so wrong for so long, which is very unusual. Most gov agency science is actually quite good .

Re: The polar vortex is hitting the brakes

#186

Post by defrost »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #159
defrost wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fissile waste has been a health problem even before first mining uranium in the DRC well before WWII. Hanford has a standing legacy problem of fissile waste from both weapons and energy work. * https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-c... * https://www.icanw.org/hanford_s_dirty_secret_and_it_s_not_56... Human activity aside, every valley with a substantial amount of granite rock about the planet po…

I read this as just an attempt to rationalize fissile waste issues as "more of the same". Maybe you truly feel comfortable doing that, maybe you see it as something else. I, in contrast, view the development of fission-based nuclear mechanisms (whether for explosives or for power generation) as a distinct break with the past, and a point in human history where an entirely new problem was brought into being. And not j…

I spent a few years in exploration geophysics.

You stated "[No one] has any truly authoritative knowledge on when (or if) fissile waste will become a problem".

I informed you that fissile waste is already a big problem at multiple sites across the planet, several US sites and Russian sites more so than anywhere else, and has been a problem for > 50 years.

You're welcome.

> you comparison of envionmental radon issues with the problems posed by storing and managing the waste produced by fission reactors is ... well, I scarely have words for it.

That's clearly a minor aside .. you ignored the 70+ tonnes of plutonium waste at Hanford.

Billions have been spent dealing with it to date and there's much left to do and spend to clean up that one site.

Don't strawman the issue, it's a large problem and there are tomes on the subject filling shelves.

Humans do need to deal with radioactive waste, this includes the large dams of radioactive waste created as a by product of rare earth and lithium processing.

Re: The polar vortex is hitting the brakes

#187

Post by bruce511 »

dragonwriter wrote: post #96
hallway_monitor wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you cut? I don’t know what I would, but I do know that the United States is heading for a financial apocalypse unless drastic measures are taken now. I know there’s a lot of hysteria around this, but I’m still at the place where I can be optimistic that the US will come out ahead. At least they’re doing something besides spending more money and acting like everything‘s OK. From a long-term financial stabil…

> What would you cut? Were I concerned about fiscal balance, I wouldn't view cutting as the best way to solve the problem, I would raise high-end taxes. > I do know that the United States is heading for a financial apocalypse unless drastic measures are taken now. Insofar as that’s true, it is a direct result of the actions taking thus far this administration, not something they are correcting—and not through fiscal…

It's worth noting that this "financial crisis" (which I disagree with) has been brought on by Republican governments. Bill Clinton left a budget surplus which is the easiest way to pay down the debt.

Secondly, if I had to cut something, the obvious target is the military. (Oh boy, ring on the downvotes there...) But hear me out.

Firstly, the adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq cost more than the current debt. With pretty much zero achieved. Focusing less on projecting power, and more on self-defense might deliver better returns.

Of course the military budget can't (and wont) be cut because it's not about the military. It's a carefully controlled jobs program that moves money from the federal piggy bank to pretty much every district in the nation. So it becomes a game of "cut x, but not y, because y is made in my district. It's easier to cut less-specific programs (like Medicare) because that isn't district specific.

Then again maybe the tide has turned, and they could cut military spending. The CHIPS act funneled tons of money to Florida and yet Floridians hated it.

Re: The polar vortex is hitting the brakes

#188

Post by y33t »

typewithrhythm wrote: post #57
artursapek wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Celsius is useful if you're a beaker of water. Fahrenheit is useful if you're a human.

Humans cannot reliably determine the difference in one degree c, even though it's bigger... Fahrenheit is too fine grained, and has no interesting points relative to the things I interact with. I freeze an boil water often, however

The base units of the metric system are often not very ergonomic. Why is a meter so damn big? And why is a gram so damn small? I can barely detect a gram. And a meter is frickin huge, causing people to usually divide it into hundredths of a meter, which you can hardly picture in your mind unless you already know what it looks like, especially arbitrary counts of cm. Metric's only real advantage is that it shares the same radix as our counting system.

What we really need is a new system of units...

Re: The polar vortex is hitting the brakes

#189

Post by taberiand »

hollerith wrote: post #137
taberiand wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fahrenheit doesn't match the 1-100 scale, though - Celsius does. 0 water freezes, 100 water boils.

Herr Fahrenheit measured the temperature many times over a period of one year in some town in Germany. He defined 0 degrees as the coldest measurement, 100 the hottest measurement.

Ok but Celsius works wherever you are (adjusting for pressure)

Re: The polar vortex is hitting the brakes

#190

Post by hallway_monitor »

bruce511 wrote: post #187
dragonwriter wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What would you cut? Were I concerned about fiscal balance, I wouldn't view cutting as the best way to solve the problem, I would raise high-end taxes. > I do know that the United States is heading for a financial apocalypse unless drastic measures are taken now. Insofar as that’s true, it is a direct result of the actions taking thus far this administration, not something they are correcting—and not through fiscal…

It's worth noting that this "financial crisis" (which I disagree with) has been brought on by Republican governments. Bill Clinton left a budget surplus which is the easiest way to pay down the debt. Secondly, if I had to cut something, the obvious target is the military. (Oh boy, ring on the downvotes there...) But hear me out. Firstly, the adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq cost more than the current debt. With pre…

Thanks to you and GP for a reasoned response. Appropriately taxing the wealthy is 100% something we also need to do and yes, I am skeptical that the current administration will move in that direction. Ditto cuts to the monstrous military industrial complex.

I think I’ll refrain from responding to the more inflammatory replies but what really sounded the financial alarm for me personally was this talk [1] given to the house on February 5th by Arizona rep David Schweikert. He makes a really compelling case about the dire state and future of the government’s financial position. If indeed I have been hoodwinked as other comments seem to think, I am open to being convinced otherwise. But this talk is well documented, and seems like a plea from a man who is desperate to sound the alarm so we can prevent disastrous consequences for millions of people in this country.

[1] https://youtu.be/TCyysMU66VA?si=Fjhx2xgYZ0upkxeo

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