PSA:
Your personal experience of climate change resulting in
"We are all going to live horribly in the future"
is quite dependent on the definition of "we"
Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect
31–40 of 286 posts
Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which are these inputs? Any why do they need to be fossil ?
You need carbon (coal) to make steel from iron. Cement needs lots of heat to make it - from coal too. Also, cement is made from CaCO3 (limestone, the shell of ancient microorganisms). It releases the CO2 it contains when transformed into cement.
My guess is that the coal could come from wood? The heat could definitely come from nuclear power.
However, the processing of the limestone might be more difficult. But then again, that also seems like insignificant emissions when the other ones are taken out, no?
Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect
#33Mere ~30 years after discovering the Greenhouse Effect we managed to split the atom, harnessing heretofore unimaginable amounts of energy. Yet almost 100 years later, here we are - Oil and gas dependent, boasting an energy and climate crisis, all the while fooling regulators with worthless climate certificates, unaccountable off-shore factories and just plain rampant fraud when it comes to CO2 emissions.
[flagged]
Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which are these inputs? Any why do they need to be fossil ?
You need carbon (coal) to make steel from iron. Cement needs lots of heat to make it - from coal too. Also, cement is made from CaCO3 (limestone, the shell of ancient microorganisms). It releases the CO2 it contains when transformed into cement.
> You need carbon (coal) to make steel from iron.
Carbon in form of coal is currently used for three purposes in steel production:
1) Heat up the ore to high temperatures
2) Reduce iron oxide to iron.
3) Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon.
Only for the third of these carbon is essential, and that requires some tens of kilos carbon per ton of steel as opposed to more than 2 tons carbon per ton of steel. The two first ones can be replaced by electrical heating and hydrogen respectively. There are currently being built some factories in northern Sweden for doing this, using hydrogen produced by hydropower. Without sufficient tax on carbon or customers willing to pay the extra for "green steel", it is not cost competitive for now.
Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect
#35Mere ~30 years after discovering the Greenhouse Effect we managed to split the atom, harnessing heretofore unimaginable amounts of energy. Yet almost 100 years later, here we are - Oil and gas dependent, boasting an energy and climate crisis, all the while fooling regulators with worthless climate certificates, unaccountable off-shore factories and just plain rampant fraud when it comes to CO2 emissions.
Every theory fails to account for human factor. Oil and gas are convenient and make so much money, it is so easy to "lobby" any government for it to stay that way. We can all be happy clappy about doing something, but it will always fail if we don't have anything to combat corruption and manage greed.
lobbying == bribing == crime. Unfortunately this equality doesn't hold in reality and on a macro economic scale is a fundamental source of corruption accelerating climate heating, sanctions impact, arms trade, human trafficking, ecosystem collapse, unemployment, etc. Nothing will ever change if we keep tolerating lobbying.
Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect
#36Some other fun “x is closer to y than z”: * We are closer in time to the T rex than the T rex was to the Stegosaurus * We are closer to the time of Cleopatra than Cleopatra was to the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza
I'm the lucky 10 thousands, thanks!
https://xkcd.com/1053/
Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fossil fuel is a cheat code because you neither have to pay to create it nor pay for the consequences of using it, nature is dealing with both of these. Everything you use from roads to shampoo, toilet paper, clothes, computers, buildings, bicycles, it's all either enabled by fossil or a fossil fuel derivate At planet scale nothing will ever get better than: dig hole, pump oil, burn oil
> At planet scale nothing will ever get better than: dig hole, pump oil, burn oil Until the alternatives are cheaper. I would recommend you to read: Not the End of the World, Hannah Ritchie
> Until the alternatives are cheaper.
To get cheaper they'd have to exist in the first place
Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect
#38[flagged]
Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which are these inputs? Any why do they need to be fossil ?
You need carbon (coal) to make steel from iron. Cement needs lots of heat to make it - from coal too. Also, cement is made from CaCO3 (limestone, the shell of ancient microorganisms). It releases the CO2 it contains when transformed into cement.
The coal used for reduction of iron ore to iron can be replaced with hydrogen through direct reduction. See Hybrit which has working industrial scale demonstration plant today, though at reduced capacity. Full capacity plants are planned in multiple locations by 2036.
Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect
#40Some other fun “x is closer to y than z”: * We are closer in time to the T rex than the T rex was to the Stegosaurus * We are closer to the time of Cleopatra than Cleopatra was to the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza
I know which one you mean, as I'm sure we all do, but it always amuses me that we refer to her as just 'Cleopatra' because... basically every queen of Egypt in that dynasty was named Cleopatra. They named the vast majority of the boys Ptolemy and the girls Cleopatra. Her mother's name is Cleopatra V Tryphaena. Her daughters name is Cleopatra Selene II. Her Fathers name is Ptolemy XII, she has brothers named Ptolemy X…
Cleopatra Nguyen