this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2023
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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.

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But around the US, utility companies are using their outsize political power to slow down the clean energy transition, and they are probably using your money to do it.

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[–] SolarMech 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Where I'm from we bought the energy companies decades ago, and kept it public for the most part since then (I think some wind farms are private). I'm not sure how long we can keep it that way in the current political order, but it is definitely worth having.

It would solve a lot of this problem.

[–] A_S_B@ursal.zone 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@SolarMech @silence7

It makes senso because, the state oil Company in my country is turning into an Energy Company. A surprising endeavor but it makes sense. Oil and petroleum are dated forms of energy, they need to be used less and less.

[–] MrMakabar 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, it does not make sense. Renewable energy projects get cheaper financing from banks and in form of green bonds. However oil companies will be treated as fossil fuel companies regardless of the project. So they will spend more on setting up renewables, then if the government set up a proper green energy company and gave them the money from the oil company. That is why these promises are in most cases nothing but greenwashing.

[–] A_S_B@lemmy.eco.br 1 points 1 year ago

Not in my country. We even have a special line destined towards helping people buy and install solar energy in their homes. Also our electric grid is entirely shared between the entire country.

[–] dillekant 1 points 1 year ago

Keep an eye on things while I'm gone, keep a lid on things...

[–] heyspencerb@sh.itjust.works -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, no shit… Also, if I paid you $100 for you to mow my lawn and then you donated all $100 to my least favorite political campaign it wasn’t my money you donated anymore, it was your money. That’s how transactions work…

[–] silence7 3 points 1 year ago

Regulated utilities in the US aren't that simple. What they do is to force people to pay extra for their gas in order to pay the lobbyists, instead of reducing the dividends they give to investors.