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Oceans hit highest temperature on record

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Re: Oceans hit highest temperature on record

#141

Post by YZF »

cdrnsf wrote: post #7

Meanwhile governments are electing to either do nothing or actively make the problem worse (particularly in the case of the US — expanding fossil fuel extraction, pushing data center build out and attacking renewables like wind).

Solar energy is the fastest growing source of energy in the US. That's because it's also the cheapest source of energy. So markets are working.

https://abcnews.com/US/solar-generates-energy-coal-us-1st-ti...

"Solar and storage provided 90% of all new power added in the U.S." is mind blowing. How about we give the US credit for this?

Fossil fuel extraction is not the problem. The problem is fossil fuel usage. Given the world consumes fossil fuel I prefer they use American fossil fuel vs. Russian or Saudi fossil fuels. I don't understand why we are dwelling on the wrong metric here. Also consider the US has just removed a sh~tload of fossil fuels from the world economy. How about some extra credits there?

Similarly data centers are going to get built somewhere. If they're already built I'd rather they are built in places like the US.

Instead of politics and blame we need to focus on markets and let them take care of the problem. This is already happening with solar. Where I would be critical about US policy is that I think they are introducing more tariffs on imported solar panels. This might fit into governments make things worse and hopefully everyone regardless of their political affiliation can push back on this specific item.

The world all going to act together stronger than the markets is not going to happen. You can argue that is unfortunate but it's also where we are.

Re: Oceans hit highest temperature on record

#143

Post by hunter-gatherer »

ch4s3 wrote: post #78
conception wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you’re saying we could significantly cut energy use globally by limiting data center build outs? 1.5% is a //huge// amount. If it was a “drop” in your bucket, it would only hold 67 more of those drops.

No, I'm not saying that and I don't think 1.5% is particularly large. Moreover many of these projects are built out with on site 0 carbon generation so they're in some ways a net benefit.

This is wildly out of touch with reality. Have you never seen a construction site? A 0 carbon generation site doesn't exist.

Re: Oceans hit highest temperature on record

#144

Post by deepfriedchokes »

julienchastang wrote: post #126

Does anybody else feel like this is the answer to the Fermi paradox? Advanced civilizations simply exploit, consume, and pollute their way of existence.

As they say, “power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Perhaps humanity shouldn’t have absolute power over the planet. Perhaps we should check our own power to save ourselves. We’ve done it with government, to insure stability and longevity, why not the planet?

Re: Oceans hit highest temperature on record

#145

Post by kbrisso »

cogman10 wrote: post #118
didgetmaster wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope so! The area I live in has been experiencing drought and everyone seems to be predicting a wet period coming from this. Personally, I don't put much faith in weather predictions that are more than a week away.

El nino predictions are pretty spot on. They won't be able to tell you "There will be a storm on the 30th" but they will be able to tell you that you should expect flash floods next year. Unfortunately for where I'm at, the prediction due to el nino is more drought, which sucks because we are already desperately dry. Hopefully the following la nina year will bring us some moisture.

Predicting El Niño vs. La Niña vs. neutral: relatively reliable. Predicting how strong the El Niño will be: harder. Predicting exactly what it will do to rainfall, temperatures, storms, or snowfall: substantially less reliable.

Re: Oceans hit highest temperature on record

#146

Post by mitthrowaway2 »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #90
abrezas wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are looking at the acceleration but without looking at the initial state. A more fair metric would be Co2 emissions/person and I’m getting USA 14.3 t, China 8.8 t, EU 5.5 t, India 2.2 t

> A more fair metric would be Co2 emissions/person and I’m getting We don't care about that notion of "fair": the cold hart truth is that China has 1.4 billon people. Another way to put it: China has one billion more people than there are in the US. Or another way to put it: 4.1x more people. Which means China is emitting nearly 3x more Co2 than the US. Our only hope is that China is using coal and fossil fuels only…

Solution to save the environment: China should separate out Tibet, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia as separate independent countries. Hong Kong and Macao too. And then split north-south so that Shanghai and Beijing become their own capitals. Continue this process and eventually the population and emissions of each individual country will be low enough that they can be ignored, thus solving the problem once and for all.

Re: Oceans hit highest temperature on record

#148

Post by thinkcontext »

burningChrome wrote: post #60
cdrnsf wrote: post #7

Meanwhile governments are electing to either do nothing or actively make the problem worse (particularly in the case of the US — expanding fossil fuel extraction, pushing data center build out and attacking renewables like wind).

The US isn't expanding fossil fuel extraction, its quite the opposite. They're funding the modernization of existing plants in order to take older plants offline: June 2026: New coal-fired plants in Anchorage, Alaska, and Mt. Storm, West Virginia, would total 2.85 GW. They would be the first new U.S. coal plants to come online since 2013. https://www.utilitydive.com/news/doe-announces-850m-moderniz... Meanwhile in Ch…

> The US isn't expanding fossil fuel extraction, its quite the opposite.

Not according to the federal government's data. BTUs from fossil fuel production set a record last year and is on a faster pace this year. Your bringing up a few coal plants is only tangentially relevant.

https://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/sec1_3.pdf

> The US could switch every ICE vehicle to EV's and install solar and wind turbines in every inch of the country and it won't combat what's going on in China, India and other developing countries that rely on coal for cheap energy.

Are you familiar with the concept of necessary but not sufficient?

In any event the war with Iran is speeding up the future that was coming anyway. China's EV and solar exports are surging throughout the world. Both China and India have said for many years that their emissions would rise and then fall.

Re: Oceans hit highest temperature on record

#150

Post by pennomi »

YZF wrote: post #141
cdrnsf wrote: post #7

Meanwhile governments are electing to either do nothing or actively make the problem worse (particularly in the case of the US — expanding fossil fuel extraction, pushing data center build out and attacking renewables like wind).

Solar energy is the fastest growing source of energy in the US. That's because it's also the cheapest source of energy. So markets are working. https://abcnews.com/US/solar-generates-energy-coal-us-1st-ti... "Solar and storage provided 90% of all new power added in the U.S." is mind blowing. How about we give the US credit for this? Fossil fuel extraction is not the problem. The problem is fossil fuel usage. Given th…

What a weird, rose-tinted view of the US you have. Just because the markets are working and the US bungled its way into another war over oil doesn’t mean we should ignore the absolutely braindead political opposition to energy modernization.
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