Climate Change / Global Warming Discussion

[eevee-fan]

The Amazon Rainforest Now Emits More Greenhouse Gases Than It Absorbs

Climate change and deforestation have transformed the ecosystem into a net source of planet-warming gases instead of a carbon sink

www.smithsonianmag.com

“Cutting the forest is interfering with its carbon uptake; that’s a problem,” Covey tells National Geographic. “When you start to look at these other factors alongside CO2, it gets really hard to see how the net effect isn’t that the Amazon as a whole is really warming global climate.”


Part of the issue is that many of the ways in which human activities are changing the Amazon end up being double or even triple whammies when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions. Say cattle ranchers burn a patch of rainforest to create new pasture for their herd, not only is the carbon dioxide absorbing power of the trees gone, but their stored carbon is released and the newly barren soil is likely to increase its emissions of greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide. What’s more, the grazing cows belch methane, a greenhouse gas roughly 30-times more damaging than carbon dioxide. Lost forest cover can also change patterns of rainfall and make the rest of the forest hotter and drier, which also tends to increase greenhouse gas emissions.


Overall, the pattern starts to sound like a worrisome feedback loop: deforestation increases greenhouse gas emissions which increases warming, and that warming then drives increased greenhouse gas emissions, and so on.

It'll all balance out once the humans go extinct!

 

[mspohr]

Here’s a recap of key energy proposals from the Biden administration and Congress

It's been a busy two months since Joe Biden became president. Here are highlights of key initiatives on the energy and cleantech fronts.

pv-magazine-usa.com

It’s been a busy two months since Joe Biden became president. Here are highlights of key initiatives on the energy and cleantech fronts.

 

[mspohr]

There's another pandemic under our noses, and it kills 8.7m people a year | Rebecca Solnit
While Covid ravaged across the world, air pollution killed about three times as many people. We must fight the climate crisis with the same urgency with which we confronted coronavirus

 

[Skotty]

I think air travel will be a bit like smoking. Sometimes all you have is the stick. We just need to make it culturally unacceptable.

Not that anyone can spend 2 weeks on a sailboat but Greta did give us a good rhetorical stick. It is kinda pathetic when someone chooses a 4 hour flight over a 20 hour drive when a teenage girl was willing to spend weeks on a boat to avoid a 12 hour flight... if you can't afford the 40 hours for the round trip you can't afford the trip... it's that simple.

This is incorrect. Time and money cannot be equated this way. Most professional jobs in America provide very limited time off that has to be used for sick time as well as vacation, and it is completely unacceptable to companies to take unpaid time off; it's just not allowed. So you live within your limited vacation time confines or you quit your job just to take a trip, making you far less likely to get another. End result, if you are taking a vacation, you better get there quick.

I myself am lucky to squeeze out a single 1 week vacation per year. However, I have enough money to fly anywhere I want, multiple times if I wanted to. Money is not a problem. Time off allowed is.

This is a problem with corporate culture (and possibly corporate and tax law are a part of it too). I'd be happy to take a couple of unpaid weeks off. But it's just not allowed. Not if I want to keep my job.

 

[nwdiver]

This is incorrect. Time and money cannot be equated this way. Most professional jobs in America provide very limited time off that has to be used for sick time as well as vacation, and it is completely unacceptable to companies to take unpaid time off; it's just not allowed. So you live within your limited vacation time confines or you quit your job just to take a trip, making you far less likely to get another. End result, if you are taking a vacation, you better get there quick.

I myself am lucky to squeeze out a single 1 week vacation per year. However, I have enough money to fly anywhere I want, multiple times if I wanted to. Money is not a problem. Time off allowed is.

This is a problem with corporate culture (and possibly corporate and tax law are a part of it too). I'd be happy to take a couple of unpaid weeks off. But it's just not allowed. Not if I want to keep my job.

Hopefully we see more business done remotely. I used to work for URENCO which is based in the UK but has plants in Germany, the Netherlands and the US. It was absolutely insane how often people would fly from here to the UK, spend a day in meetings... then fly back. Hopefully COVID helped to put an end to that kind of insane waste. Yeah... sometimes you have to fly... those flights need to get A LOT more expensive and the vast majority are unnecessary.

 

[JRP3]

End result, if you are taking a vacation, you better get there quick.

Where is it written that a vacation must be farther away than a reasonable drive?

 

[mspohr]

Biden Wants to Spend Billions to Fight Climate Change. It’s Not Enough. Opinion | Biden Wants to Spend Billions to Fight Climate Change. It’s Not Enough.
What I’m saying is, Biden’s proposal is gargantuan. And if a version manages to pass Congress at anywhere near its current scope, it would constitute a historic level of spending to mitigate the climate crisis and improve basic American services to a level above “crumbling.” Yet here is the stark shame of our current political moment: Huge as it sounds, the Biden plan is not nearly big enough. Rather than inspiring optimism, then, the vast size of the proposal sets up a disheartening conundrum for anyone looking forward to a habitable future on this fragile planet: Any plan bold enough to effectively address climate change seems unlikely to survive the American political system. And any bill that can survive our politics may not make enough of a dent on the climate.What I’m saying is, Biden’s proposal is gargantuan. And if a version manages to pass Congress at anywhere near its current scope, it would constitute a historic level of spending to mitigate the climate crisis and improve basic American services to a level above “crumbling.” Yet here is the stark shame of our current political moment: Huge as it sounds, the Biden plan is not nearly big enough. Rather than inspiring optimism, then, the vast size of the proposal sets up a disheartening conundrum for anyone looking forward to a habitable future on this fragile planet: Any plan bold enough to effectively address climate change seems unlikely to survive the American political system. And any bill that can survive our politics may not make enough of a dent on the climate.
A 2019 estimate by the Roosevelt Institute suggests it will take about $1 trillion in spending per year over at least 10 years to achieve a carbon-neutral American economy; several other estimates come to a similar conclusion. Part of the investment is likely to come from the private sector, but most will need to be from the government. Biden’s proposal is just a fifth of what the institute estimates is the minimum amount that the government needs to spend to stave off the worst projected dangers of a warming climate; at the high end of spending projections, it’s only an eighth.

 

[ggies07]

Where is it written that a vacation must be farther away than a reasonable drive?

While I agree with you and try to live by that, it's extremely hard to do that for us Texans compared to say, people who live in the NE. It takes half a day just to get out of the state and so it eats up the vacation time you do have.

 

[mspohr]

While I agree with you and try to live by that, it's extremely hard to do that for us Texans compared to say, people who live in the NE. It takes half a day just to get out of the state and so it eats up the vacation time you do have.

Surely there must be good vacation spots in Texas?

 

[Raffy.Roma]

Biden Wants to Spend Billions to Fight Climate Change. It’s Not Enough. Opinion | Biden Wants to Spend Billions to Fight Climate Change. It’s Not Enough.
What I’m saying is, Biden’s proposal is gargantuan. And if a version manages to pass Congress at anywhere near its current scope, it would constitute a historic level of spending to mitigate the climate crisis and improve basic American services to a level above “crumbling.” Yet here is the stark shame of our current political moment: Huge as it sounds, the Biden plan is not nearly big enough. Rather than inspiring optimism, then, the vast size of the proposal sets up a disheartening conundrum for anyone looking forward to a habitable future on this fragile planet: Any plan bold enough to effectively address climate change seems unlikely to survive the American political system. And any bill that can survive our politics may not make enough of a dent on the climate.What I’m saying is, Biden’s proposal is gargantuan. And if a version manages to pass Congress at anywhere near its current scope, it would constitute a historic level of spending to mitigate the climate crisis and improve basic American services to a level above “crumbling.” Yet here is the stark shame of our current political moment: Huge as it sounds, the Biden plan is not nearly big enough. Rather than inspiring optimism, then, the vast size of the proposal sets up a disheartening conundrum for anyone looking forward to a habitable future on this fragile planet: Any plan bold enough to effectively address climate change seems unlikely to survive the American political system. And any bill that can survive our politics may not make enough of a dent on the climate.
A 2019 estimate by the Roosevelt Institute suggests it will take about $1 trillion in spending per year over at least 10 years to achieve a carbon-neutral American economy; several other estimates come to a similar conclusion. Part of the investment is likely to come from the private sector, but most will need to be from the government. Biden’s proposal is just a fifth of what the institute estimates is the minimum amount that the government needs to spend to stave off the worst projected dangers of a warming climate; at the high end of spending projections, it’s only an eighth.

I like this article but I would like to point out that President Biden SERIOUSLY wants to fight the Climate Change issue. It's not a matter of how much money the Biden Administration Is available to spend to fight the Climate Change issue but it's a matter of a REAL COMMITMENT fight the Climate Change issue IMO.

 

[ggies07]

Surely there must be good vacation spots in Texas?

Sure, but several hours from the DFW area. But you are still in Texas and you can only do that so many times before you see it all...in the NE you can travel through multiple states at a fairly fast time....

 

[Skotty]

Where is it written that a vacation must be farther away than a reasonable drive?

I've already seen my local HyVee more than a few times.

 

[Skotty]

Start with China which is #1 in C02 emissions:

The 5 Countries That Produce the Most Carbon Dioxide (CO2)

Learn about the top five countries—China, the United States, India, Russia, and Japan—that are the largest contributors to carbon dioxide emissions.

www.investopedia.com

View attachment 649831

China needs to be addressed at some point, but we should be careful not to let someone else's problem be an excuse for having our own. Especially in America, we once believed in leading by example. We need to earn that distinction back.

 

[gene]

Where is it written that a vacation must be farther away than a reasonable drive?

So far I have lasted 9 years without flying. And my vacations have been only driving by EV. Really, flying kinda' sucks anyway.

 

[JRP3]

I think it's been 20 years or so since I last flew. I don't feel as if I'm missing anything, other than being stuck in a tin can for hours with a bunch of strangers. It helps that I live in an area where any activity I wish to do from boating to snowboarding is 5-30 minutes away.

 

[mspohr]

Biden’s infrastructure plan aims to turbocharge U.S. shift from fossil fuels

The linchpin of Biden’s plan, which he detailed in a speech Wednesday in Pittsburgh, is the creation of a national standard requiring utilities to use a specific amount of solar, wind and other renewable energy to power American homes, businesses and factories. The amount would increase over time, cutting the nation’s use of coal, gas and oil over the next 15 years.

Biden did not hold back on spending requests. He also plans to ask Congress to provide $174 billion to boost the U.S. market share of electric vehicles and their supply chains, from raw materials to retooled factories. He reiterated that he wants to establish 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations by 2030 and electrify 20 percent of the nation’s yellow school buses.


Biden also requested $10 billion for a new Civilian Climate Corps, a name designed to echo President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps. Biden’s version would hire an army of young people to work on projects that conserve and restore public lands and waters, increase reforestation, increase carbon sequestration through agriculture, protect biodiversity, improve access to recreation, and build resilience to climate change.

 

[Merrill]

Hopefully if he does this there will be a condition written into the law that will not allow the utilities to jack up rates because people are using more solar.

 

[Raffy.Roma]

Biden’s infrastructure plan aims to turbocharge U.S. shift from fossil fuels

The linchpin of Biden’s plan, which he detailed in a speech Wednesday in Pittsburgh, is the creation of a national standard requiring utilities to use a specific amount of solar, wind and other renewable energy to power American homes, businesses and factories. The amount would increase over time, cutting the nation’s use of coal, gas and oil over the next 15 years.

Biden did not hold back on spending requests. He also plans to ask Congress to provide $174 billion to boost the U.S. market share of electric vehicles and their supply chains, from raw materials to retooled factories. He reiterated that he wants to establish 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations by 2030 and electrify 20 percent of the nation’s yellow school buses.


Biden also requested $10 billion for a new Civilian Climate Corps, a name designed to echo President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps. Biden’s version would hire an army of young people to work on projects that conserve and restore public lands and waters, increase reforestation, increase carbon sequestration through agriculture, protect biodiversity, improve access to recreation, and build resilience to climate change.

This is A GOOD PLAN IMHO! GO PRESIDENT BIDEN!

 

[eevee-fan]

I don't get it, green hydrogen will be cheaper than brown hydrogen BECAUSE solar will be 40% cheaper by 2050. But solar+battery is still more efficient, I would think, unless some big discovery is made.

BloombergNEF forecasts green hydrogen should be cheaper than natural gas by 2050 in some markets; falling costs of solar PV key

In a new piece of research, BloombergNEF (BNEF) finds that the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH2) made from renewable electricity is set to fall faster than it previously estimated. BNEF now forecasts that green hydrogen from renewables should be cheaper than natural gas (on an energy-equivalent...

www.greencarcongress.com

 

[mspohr]

Banks are worried about defaults due to climate change... want a bailout.

How Debt and Climate Change Pose ‘Systemic Risk’ to World Economy (Published 2021)

With dozens of countries struggling to manage both staggering debt and mounting climate disasters, some financial leaders are calling for green debt relief.

www.nytimes.com

Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the I.M.F., said in an emailed statement that green recovery programs had the potential to spur ambitious climate action in developing countries, “especially at a time they face fiscal constraints because of the impact of the pandemic on their economies.”

The United Nations said Thursday that the global economic collapse endangered nearly $600 billion in debt service payments over the next five years. Both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are important lenders, but so are rich countries, as well as private banks and bondholders. The global financial system would face a huge problem if countries faced with shrinking economies defaulted on their debts.s

“We cannot walk head on, eyes wide open, into a debt crisis that is foreseeable and preventable,” the United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres, said last week as he called for debt relief for a broad range of countries. “Many developing countries face financing constraints that mean they cannot invest in recovery and resilience.”