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The world has probably passed peak pollution

sustainabilitybynumbers.com

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Re: The world has probably passed peak pollution

#81

Post by randomdata »

silverquiet wrote: post #77
randomdata wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why should I love them, guard them, bring them up, or watch them? Once upon a time there was no choice if you wanted to survive yourself. The world was too much for the feeble man without their help. Indeed, the rich now have the luxury of relying on "corporations" to stand in for where children were once necessary. But then you're ultimately back to square one: Why should you love, guard, bring up, and watch the c…

I think we are just all different - I can't imagine children bringing me any happiness; I felt the way Tolstoy did already when I was a young child. Interestingly, my grandmother once told me she only had children because of social expectations, and I can say that her children were absolutely aware of that. For me, the philosophical reasons were enough; the monetary savings are in a sense a bonus, but for others econ…

> but for others economics may be the main force preventing them from having children

Economics never prevents having children. As before, only the rich even get the luxury of choosing to not have children. But the rich could have children too if they so choose. Their fear of children making them look poor under the whims of today's fashion is an entirely self-imposed limitation.

Good for them if that's what they want to do. No judgment on anyone's personal life choices. But I maintain that an increasing number of people are starting to question if that is what is right for them. I agree that what is right for an individual is not universal. Some people will truly not want children, but many more feel pressured to not have children due to the prevailing fashion trends. I see change afoot among the latter group. Having children is slowly starting to become "cool" again.

Re: The world has probably passed peak pollution

#82

Post by vouaobrasil »

vouaobrasil wrote: post #58
MaxHoppersGhost wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Posted from a huge house with air conditioning while using multiple petroleum products (iPhone/computer, chair, desk, fleece, etc). The pollution lifted every single person’s standard of living across the globe to levels unimaginable 100 years ago. It’s easy to be in Seattle or New York and say we gotta stop burning oil and coal but there are trade offs that were worth making. If you live in a developing country with…

Every single person? Not exactly. What about farmers forced off their land for corporate interests? What about people working in the garbage dumps of Tijuana in Mexico [1]? I've actually lived in the "first world" (born there) and now have lived over a year in a developing country where most people (including myself) don't have "aircon", and whether technology has improved things is not as clearcut as you might think…

I find it truly amusing how any suggestion that technology LOWERS our standard of living is immediately met with a severe reaction here. It's as though it is gospel, to be assumed without any question. Technophiles are truly narrow-minded.

Re: The world has probably passed peak pollution

#83

Post by moralestapia »

grecy wrote: post #27
iiovemiku wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, seeing peak baby is a little scary honestly. I had always thought that low birth rates were a problem for only countries like Germany, Spain, Japan, etc. (at least for the time being). Seeing countries like India even out (and even going under replacement rate) gives me some heavy pessimism about population graying. I had always thought that heavy swingers like them would carry on the whole growing population th…

> Wow, seeing peak baby is a little scary honestly Are you worried 8 billion is somehow not enough humans?

Yes, I am. Humans don't live forever. No offspring and it's all gone in one generation, disregarding if they're 8 billion or 100 billion.

Re: The world has probably passed peak pollution

#84

Post by el_nahual »

hehdhdjehehegwv wrote: post #31

The good news is you’ve taken your foot off the gas. The bad news is the car is going 100mph and there is a cliff edge in 10 feet.

Given that (with regard to greenhouse gasses) we've a) unlocked positive feedback emission loops from tropical & arctic methane and b) still pumping increasing amounts of carbon into the air, it's clear to anyone paying attention that we've already fallen off the cliff.

We're just hovering for a second like Wile E Coyote.

Re: The world has probably passed peak pollution

#85

Post by dalyons »

Retric wrote: post #68
vondur wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding China: China accounted for 95% of the world's new coal power construction activity in 2023, according to the latest annual report from Global Energy Monitor (GEM). Construction began on 70 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity in China, up four-fold since 2019, says GEM's annual report on the global coal power industry China started construction on 70.2 GW of new coal-power capacity last year, almost 20 times the…

That’s misleading because they are idling their existing coal power plants more often. Essentially they are using new coal as demand following peaker plants rather than base load power generation. “In the first decade of the 2000s, plants were running around 70% of the time. They're now running around 50%.” https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/china-coal-plants#... . By comparison China added 217 GW of PV in 202…

Also critically they don’t have to build these coal plant to be economically used in the same way as free market states do. They’re building them mostly as a hedge - if they end up barely used , which is likely given renewable trends, that’s ok for state owned power. It makes everything a bit more expensive, but you can’t exactly vote for an alternative.

If they need to get used a lot for whatever reason, no one is unhappy either, you avoid shortages and discontent.

Whereas coal stopped being built in market economies roughly as soon as it became uneconomical.

Re: The world has probably passed peak pollution

#86

Post by rgmerk »

Retric wrote: post #68
vondur wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding China: China accounted for 95% of the world's new coal power construction activity in 2023, according to the latest annual report from Global Energy Monitor (GEM). Construction began on 70 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity in China, up four-fold since 2019, says GEM's annual report on the global coal power industry China started construction on 70.2 GW of new coal-power capacity last year, almost 20 times the…

That’s misleading because they are idling their existing coal power plants more often. Essentially they are using new coal as demand following peaker plants rather than base load power generation. “In the first decade of the 2000s, plants were running around 70% of the time. They're now running around 50%.” https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/china-coal-plants#... . By comparison China added 217 GW of PV in 202…

Apparently part of the issue is that the Chinese grid is very badly managed.

They can build physical grid connections much more easily than we can manage (for the usual values of “we”), but they manage interprovincial transmission according to fixed schedules rather than responding to demand.

Re: The world has probably passed peak pollution

#87

Post by methuselah_in »

With humans burning and producing waste can nothing be like peak. They will keep on going. I don't understand why people don't understand it's human nature until you don't stop them with fines you squeeze the availability of the fossils, they will keep on going on. What soul awakening scientists expects is possible only in few. Govt have to push people with policies and shift their behaviour.

Re: The world has probably passed peak pollution

#89

Post by benatkin »

Many will regret being distracted by the world's problems when they could have been building their lives. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxYt--CFXK0

> Looking back, my only Berklee classmates that got successful were the ones who were fiercely focused, determined, and undistractable.

> While you’re here, presidents will change, the world will change, and the media will try to convince you how important it all is.

> But it’s not. None of it matters to you now.

https://sive.rs/berklee

Re: The world has probably passed peak pollution

#90

Post by voxelghost »

hollerith wrote: post #66
jereze wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if we are close to peaking emissions, we must consider the phenomenon of accumulation. Given that CO2 has an effective lifespan of around 100 years and methane about 10 years in the atmosphere, reductions in emissions now will still result in these gases accumulating and impacting the climate for decades to come.

Where you have "accumulating", you mean persisting.

No, even if you emit less, you are still 'accumulating', but at a slower rate. And previously released methane is still converting to co2 in the atmosphere, for decades to come.
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