Rightbug
5878
I don’t have a lot of heroes but Great Thunberg is definitely one of them.
Yup yup. To which she would say, of course: “Fuck your praise. What are you doing about climate change? I’m just a kid and you’re the grownups.”
I wonder if she will turn down the Nobel Peace Prize if she wins it. I kind of hope she does.
It would be a good opportunity for her to deliver another “fuck you, what is wrong with you so-called adults?” speech.
MikeJ
5883
Bill Gates interview:
The greatest expert on energy is Václav Smil. Whenever you spend time with Václav, he’s like, “Oh, yeah? You’re going to do what in 20 years?”
It’s just a reminder that the modern economy is about energy intensity. This idea that we’ll take 100 million barrels a day and just not use them, that we’ll just say, “No, no. No, thank you” — it’s very hard.
A plan involves looking at all the sources, electricity, transport, industry, buildings, and land use/agriculture and really saying, “Okay, what are the possible paths that get you to these dramatic reductions, and therefore what are the missing inventions?” Fortunately, there’s not any one path. If you don’t have nuclear and if you don’t have a storage miracle, it’s very, very hard, because basically what you have to do is have electricity be used for many, many, many things like all building heating and cooling that today, you use natural gas or coal for it directly.
So, first, you have to assume you can make electricity with zero emission. Then you assume you can make the electric sector almost three times bigger than it is today — these are mind-blowing investments. I want to help educate people because I have not seen anything that’s worthy of the word plan because a plan has to involve not just the U.S. doing something.
I’ve heard the thing about having to replace all the heating and industrial processes that currently consume a lot of fossil fuels many times before, but somehow it keeps slipping my mind. Probably because it’s too depressing.
Bill is definitely in the nuclear camp. If we don’t go big on nuclear, how much of an energy storage miracle do we need?
CraigM
5885
I hope someone throws him in the trash.
Well, compost bin actually.
Tim_N
5886
Wow, this congressman gave a really accurate description of what it feels like to care about the environment. Every time I buy 100% recycled toilet paper there are a dozen indifferent consumers grabbing the forest clearing kind, every time I intentionally conserve water at a minor inconvenience to myself my neighbors will set up their sprinklers and soak their lawns all day for no reason other than that it is Tuesday.
Yet, unlike this congressman, I still care about things and try to do my bit.
I just don’t understand his attitude. CO2 does not care about how aggrieved you feel or that China isn’t pulling its weight.
CO2 can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. And it will not stop until…
I mean, does this douchebag think his anti-China grandstanding is going to matter when all the coastal cities are underwater and vast tracts of once-arable land are a dustbowl?
That’s not to say we shouldn’t push China on climate with every lever we have, but standing there and crossing our own arms with a pouty face is madness.
Resources for the strikes/rallies starting Friday.
https://globalclimatestrike.net/
I’m sure this is no big deal.
Probably all those wind turbines.
Jonathan Franzen is gonna plotz
Strollen
5892
Right now we have enough battery power storage to keep the grid power for about 30 seconds. If you included pump storage we are around 10-20 minutes. Pump storage is sort of like dams and hydro, there is always NIMBY/ecology group who oppose any plan to build more.
In theory, if we could use EV batteries (like this island is doing), with enough EVs we might be able to store a meaningful amount.
I know that solar projects I’ve been looking at in Hawaii that used batteries result in electricity cost in the $.20-$.25 KWV vs $.10 to $.12 that don’t.
KevinC
5893
Just saw Beto’s response in his Reddit AMA regarding his stance on nuclear power. I thought it relevant to some of the discussions we’ve had here lately.
Tim_N
5894
So who here is going to a local climate change protest for Sept 20?
Being in Sydney, I will be going first and about to leave for one in an hour. I hope to see many other people there, but it is sprinkling with rain so not even nature is on our side today.
We are having an event at Hamilton College – and I in particular am sponsoring a letter-writing campaign. Which I will probably spend drawing hearts around the word “Greta” all over my page.
