this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2024
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Climate - truthful information about climate, related activism and politics.

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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.

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

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Stein and the Greens are also rabidly anti-nuclear, continuing to repeat outdated and debunked nonsense. We can’t plausibly maintain this level of energy use on renewables alone.

That being said, the writer’s claim that Harris is better on climate than Stein is absolutely ridiculous. The Biden/Harris admin set records for fossil fuel extractions, strongly support fracking, waived environmental protections to build Trump’s border wall faster, and want to ban imports of EV’s and solar panels. Plus, their escalating militarism is a carbon nightmare.

Rhetoric won’t save us.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Yeah, no. Nuclear is a con. Don‘t believe and spread the energy industry‘s lies. They’re shitting on renewables, because they want consumers dependant on their crap which needs to be subsidised by the state because it’s not economically viable. Thank you.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It’s easy to tell who’s been propagandized, because they care more about how much it will cost than actually saving the planet.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ah, you assume there’s (or will be) unlimited funds set aside to fight climate change?
If that is so, why not plaster deserts with solar panels and the oceans with wind turbines. Would go a bit quicker than the 10-20 years it takes to finalise one nuclear power plant. The nuclear hype has no scientific basis.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don’t assume unlimited funds. I know that the only way we can actually address climate change is to overthrow the capitalists driving the pollution. Ending their wars would provide far more than adequate funding, even before wealth redistribution.

I can’t imagine being so uninformed that you believe the advantages of nuclear energy has no scientific basis. On par with the flat earthers.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Jesus man, you want to end capitalism but fall for one of its biggest outfits? Also, right now there is just the capitalist reality and within that science tells us, that nuclear is economically not good enough to support the green transformation. I am fine with overthrowing capitalism, but till then we have to somehow manage with a reality that is inseparable from it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Nuclear is not capitalists’ “biggest outfit.” You’re thinking of oil, and they pay astroturfers to convince people like you to be anti-nuclear.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I’m talking about the Energy Companies

Edit: the claim that the oil industry paid anyone to stop nuclear is a right wing lie. Please look it up, I don’t have the nerve for it anymore.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

the claim that the oil industry paid anyone to stop nuclear is a right wing lie.

Oil lobby bot confirmed.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

show me your proof that the oil industry paid for anti nuclear sentiment. And try to avoid right wing propaganda. then you may claim whatever you want.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm pro nuclear as well but we absolutely can maintain this level of energy consumption on renewables alone.

The question is cost and risk - I'm for diversification of our grid which includes nuclear.

But it is getting to the point where renewables with backups will be cheaper than coal. That's absolutely something you can run the entire grid off of. You can balance storage requirements with excess production capacity that gets shuttered over the summer etc etc

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The backup is nuclear.

I don’t really care what it costs. We’re trying to save the habitability of the planet. Damn the cost.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

OK, then we just deploy a whole lot of storage capacity as fast as we can to support solar and wind. Nuclear only makes sense if it's cheaper than that, and it's not.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Cheaper long term, yes. Higher upfront cost.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Not quite sure which way you're pointing. Nuclear is ridiculously expensive up front. It has to run for a long time at 100% to make any kind of economic sense.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I’m not concerned about economic sense. I’m worried about keeping the planet habitable.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

And we have another path for that. We really don't need nuclear at this point.