this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2024
150 points (98.7% liked)

Climate - truthful information about climate, related activism and politics.

5329 readers
487 users here now

Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.

As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades: Graph of temperature as observed with significant warming, and simulated without added greenhouse gases and other anthropogentic changes, which shows no significant warming

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world: IPCC AR6 Figure 2 - Thee bar charts: first chart: how much each gas has warmed the world.  About 1C of total warming.  Second chart:  about 1.5C of total warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases, offset by 0.4C of cooling from aerosols and negligible influence from changes to solar output, volcanoes, and internal variability.  Third chart: about 1.25C of warming from CO2, 0.5C from methane, and a bunch more in small quantities from other gases.  About 0.5C of cooling with large error bars from SO2.

Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:

Anti-science, inactivism, and unsupported conspiracy theories are not ok here.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 21 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Zink@programming.dev 19 points 5 days ago (1 children)

On one hand, good. Great!

On the other hand, I live in the United States of Trumpistan. So many nincompoops here would be happy to drive a smoke-belching pickup truck to their office job while China speeds away from us with all their fancy book-learnin’ technology.

[–] millie@beehaw.org 3 points 4 days ago

I thought you were going to say they would be happy to drive their smoke belching pickup trucks off a cliff and became briefly enthusiastic about the idea.

[–] Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world 57 points 6 days ago

Don't threaten me with a good time!

[–] TheFriar@lemm.ee 33 points 5 days ago

Fuckin good

[–] Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de 29 points 5 days ago

Won't someone please think of the oil companies.

[–] lemmus@lemmy.world 15 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 30 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Also bad news for US: “drill baby, drill”! Oops

Worst of all, bad news for the environment, as US says “I told you so, plenty of cheap gas for my SUV”

Sorry, a bit frustrated with my fellow citizens

[–] spidermanchild@sh.itjust.works 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I'm confused, so if China reducing their oil consumption is bad for the environment, does that mean China burning more oil is good? Call me skeptical.

Demand needs to drop, that's always a good thing. Yes, in the short term prices may also drop and some dickheads will get a good deal, but prices will correct as the industry shrinks and production drops. The more demand drops, the less economical large refineries become, and we can finally enjoy the death spiral of a contracting industry.

There are other (better) ways to kill the industry like a carbon tax and banning production, but in the spirit of trying all of the approaches this is still positive.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

US is way too big an oil consumer, way too slow on fixing it. Slowin it down even more is just bad, and we’re big enough polluters that it won’t just affect us

[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 13 points 5 days ago (1 children)

After reaching 50% share in July, it is up to over 53% in October. https://english.www.gov.cn/archive/statistics/202411/21/content_WS673f370ec6d0868f4e8ed4b2.html

EVs make better cars. Faster and quieter, cheaper operation costs, and profit/emergency potential from V2G (or just to home), and future robotaxi. Charging infrastructure expands with success/penetration. Even in US and Europe, EV models that are cheaper than their ICE equivalents before rebates are already announced/on the market.

IEA projections are always behind. Natural gas use in Europe and China is also down. and will continue its pace.

[–] cestvrai@lemm.ee 7 points 5 days ago (4 children)

EVs are heavier, put more wear on the roads (for the same class of vehicle) and more microplastics into the environment from the tires. They don’t fix noise pollution, road safety or congestion.

We need better public transit, not robotaxis.

[–] MrSpArkle@lemmy.ca 21 points 5 days ago

Fuck good, let’s have perfect.

[–] AHemlocksLie@lemmy.zip 8 points 4 days ago

They may not fix noise pollution, but they seem to reduce it. At least at urban speeds where I can be near them when they're driving, them sure seem to be significantly quieter than gas cars.

[–] jacksilver@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Also electric vs gas has nothing to do with robotaxis.

[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

robotaxis need a lot of electronics/computing and so a large battery. A hybrid can charge that battery, but it is close to 50c/kwh electricity cost. V2G is a more obvious near term game changer. Can pay for cost of car over lifetime, or at least provide negative fuel costs. At any rate, an EV robotaxi will outcompete an ICE one. It also has the advantage of driving to a charging station during any downtime.

[–] jacksilver@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

That's a fair point, the integrated battery does make managing the equipment easier.

[–] countrypunk 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Wait, why are EV tires more polluting than gasoline tires?

[–] AHemlocksLie@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Because the car is heavier overall, which means they put more wear on the tires per mile driven.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago
[–] ChocoboRocket@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago

Can't wait for prices to go up everywhere else!

[–] ohellidk@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 days ago

cheap gas? sure.