Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not really. There's something called the "Forest Carbon Cycle". Forests do not statically capture carbon long term. They are constantly taking carbon in but also releasing it through the death of trees and through the soil. Trees can temporarily capture carbon, but ultimately it will be released again unless they are burned. They also take up a lot of space. [EDIT] I should probably clarify that I have nothing agains…
I would love to see engineered wood, like Cross-laminated timber, replace concrete as a structural building material.
Atmospheric CO2 levels accelerate upwards
381–390 of 522 posts
Re: Atmospheric CO2 levels accelerate upwards
#382Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not really. There's something called the "Forest Carbon Cycle". Forests do not statically capture carbon long term. They are constantly taking carbon in but also releasing it through the death of trees and through the soil. Trees can temporarily capture carbon, but ultimately it will be released again unless they are burned. They also take up a lot of space. [EDIT] I should probably clarify that I have nothing agains…
I would love to see engineered wood, like Cross-laminated timber, replace concrete as a structural building material.
Re: Atmospheric CO2 levels accelerate upwards
#383Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Be constructive, be creative. Ok, solution time. Let's immediately ban everyone who denies that climate change is human made from all positions of power. That implies stripping them of both titles and wealth.
I vote we kill you first. You breathe out CO2, right? EDIT: Nice silent edit there. Let me just quote what you just deleted from your comment "Since they won't probably give in voluntarily and since many of them are already in power, this further implies a violent uprising."
Re: Atmospheric CO2 levels accelerate upwards
#384Earlier quoted context omitted.
This UN site says 5% of actual CO2 and 14% of CO2-equivalent emissions. Cow and pig production emit mostly methane and nitrogen oxide. http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/197623/icode/
Pigs are actually a lot better than cows because they are monogastric. So we can cut CO2 emissions by eating more pork and less beef. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruminant#Ruminants_and_climate...
Re: Atmospheric CO2 levels accelerate upwards
#385IMO a large part of the failure to deal with this problem has to do with political cowardice on the part of the left. Sometimes if you're just honest with people as opposed to constantly trying to sugar coat, lie, or guilt trip people things go better. It's truly baffling to me that dim-witted local politicians can constantly convince local populations into tax increases and blowing up of local coffers to build sport…
The LEFT?
http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/10/04/the-politics-of-climat...
Re: Atmospheric CO2 levels accelerate upwards
#386Re: Atmospheric CO2 levels accelerate upwards
#387How does animal agriculture affect this? Are there any authorities on the subject on HN? Everything I've heard suggests the greenhouse gas emissions in support of animal agriculture far outstrip those of pretty much anything else, but nobody seems to really talk about it. Pre-empting a couple of replies here - I already don't eat meat, and yes I've seen "Cowspiracy". :)
Animal ag can both be a carbon sink and a carbon source depending on management. Ruminant animals play an important role in grassland ecosystems for nutrient cycling, which can affect the carbon cycle and potentially sequester carbon in soil. Whether we eat the animals is another question. Check out Carbon Farming or Holistic Management for more details.
Re: Atmospheric CO2 levels accelerate upwards
#388Re: Atmospheric CO2 levels accelerate upwards
#389Earlier quoted context omitted.
Vehicles are increasingly being powered by renewables and efficient combined-cycle gas turbines. Coal's share of electricity production is declining or being phased out almost everywhere.
Worldwide the share of coal in energy production is at 40% and the United States it has dropped from 56% to 40%. Coal still produces 40% of every KWh consumed with Nuclear making up a fair portion of the remainder. Renewables are at 20% and (fortunately) rising sharply but for the moment fossil energy sources are by far the bulk of the energy consumed by electric vehicles. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.ELC.C…
Even in countries that still have coal-fired power today, an electric vehicle is certainly no worse than a fossil-fuel one.
And, as grid share of renewables and other cleaner energy sources increases, each EV becomes greener and greener over time. But each fossil vehicle remains just as polluting - or perhaps even gets worse as it ages.
Re: Atmospheric CO2 levels accelerate upwards
#390The message I"m getting is not that I have to prepare for something or change energy sources , it's that "our lifestyle is killing the planet much faster than we thought". CO2 levels is just one of a myriad of indicators that are off the scale now. By lifestyle I mean supermarkets and restaurants and iPhones and planes ... all the stuff that we're so proud of as a society. Winning, getting ahead, being number one, ou…
The planet is going to be just fine, the only thing that we can screw up is our ability to live on it in large numbers - which matters a lot to me for obvious reasons. Unless we're speaking about things that literally are extinction events for us , the larger organism doesn't really care about extremely short term fluctuations; in the scale of a few hundred million years the current climate change (or the temporary e…