Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

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erowind
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Re: Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

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https://mahb.stanford.edu/

BIG EDIT: In the MAHB infograph below overpopulation is listed as a problem. This isn't true, economic inequality is the real problem, over 50% of emissions are caused by the 10% most wealthy populations with that skew becoming more absurd for the top 1%. The reason I cite the MAHB is that despite some malthusians among them, their research is spot on in terms of other fundamental problems.

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I'm primarily going to source dump this time instead of writing a massive essay like on the last forum. TL:DR: switching to renewables that rely on resource extraction will not solve the resources crises, nor the ecological crises--and the extraction, processing, manufacturing and transport of those scarce resources (lithium, rare earths, etc) is an emissions intensive process that damages the environment all the same. The answer is degrowth across all sectors alongside of circumstantial use of all forms of energy production including fossil fuels, but with emphasis on nuclear, hydropower, geothermal and tidal energy. Simply switching from oil to lithium and rare earths while pushing for endless economic growth will destroy the biosphere and society.



Kevin Anderson: Paris, climate & surrealism: how numbers reveal another reality

https://www.youtube .com/watch?v=jIODRrnHQxg&list=WL&index=16 (youtube blocking embed on this video)

When will Oil Peak?



The World you know is Ending



Between the Devil and the Green New Deal
Jasper Bernes


"We cannot legislate and spend our way out of catastrophic global warming."

https://communemag.com/between-the-devi ... -new-deal/

Australian Department of Defense funded research think tank (Contends IPCC numbers)

https://www.climaterealitycheck.net/flipbook

The IPCC is corrupt. The UN is corrupt. The Paris Climate Accord is a failure. Climate scientists and ecologists are systemically and culturally gagged and prevented from disseminating this information. The example given is Australian however this is a global phenomena.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/202 ... a/12643824

Even scientists who themselves are not marxists will tell you that capitalism is the problem. (Endless growth)

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26188749?s ... b_contents

What's Made from Oil?



Only 60 Years of Farming Left If Soil Degradation Continues (It is highly reductionist to act as if the battle is won if oil is displaced as the primary energy source)

https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... continues/

Civil Protection: Oil's Well



Possible climate transitions from breakup of stratocumulus decks under greenhouse warming (Bad feedback loop)

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0310-1

FAQ: Possible climate transitions from breakup of stratocumulus decks under greenhouse warming

https://clima.caltech.edu/2019/03/01/fa ... e-warming/

Climate regulating ocean plants and animals are being destroyed by toxic chemicals and plastics, accelerating our path towards ocean pH 7.95 in 25 years which will devastate humanity.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm ... id=3860950

Mining of Minerals and the Limits to Growth Video



The biomass distribution on Earth

"The composition of the biosphere is a fundamental question in biology, yet a global quantitative account of the biomass of each taxon is still lacking. We assemble a census of the biomass of all kingdoms of life. This analysis provides a holistic view of the composition of the biosphere and allows us to observe broad patterns over taxonomic categories, geographic locations, and trophic modes."

https://www.pnas.org/content/115/25/6506

Insect decline in the Anthropocene: Death by a thousand cuts

https://www.pnas.org/content/118/2/e202 ... gures-data

The transformation our society is in the early stages of is going to radically change the worldviews of every person on this forum, and every person that we know, have known, or will ever know for better or worse. The only variable that I don't fully understand that might change this outcome is if AI is genuinely some kind of clarktech that completely upends everything including capitalism and human society as it is known today for better or worse.

There are two outcomes barring the AI scenario, which something we shouldn't plan our lives around, though should remain aware of, given its tenuous nature.

A: Unmitigated ecological crises which involves no change in human land use and resources use until the carrying capacity of the biosphere is outright reduced taking much of the human population with it. In this scenario there are billions of human deaths, one of the worst, if not the worst mass extinction on the fossil record, and humanity enters a dark age for centuries if not millennia. (What Malthusians want.)

B: Mitigated ecological crises where humans consciously reduce their land and resources use (not the same as malthusian population reduction) and learn to live with less for the next century or so until we can get our heavy industry off world. In this scenario there is still a mild mass extinction, there are still 10s of millions of deaths if not hundreds, but the crises is wheatherable and we come out the other side of it better off than before.

In both scenarios captialism is done as growth economics are done. It's a matter of choosing between a neofeudalist/slave economy hellworld and a cybernetically planned economy that benefits all. Solar prices be damned.

Edit for clarification: Are gains in solar PVC costs and efficiency bad or unwelcome? No, of course not, that's a wonderful thing. It's just that going ham on solar isn't the solution in of itself, the same applies to wind power and batteries. As outlined above there are fundamental problems with this strategy in context of growth economics on a finite planet.
Last edited by erowind on Thu Jan 20, 2022 7:17 am, edited 3 times in total.
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SerethiaFalcon
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Re: Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

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Post removed - unnecessary.
Last edited by SerethiaFalcon on Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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caltrek
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I do think some tend to focus a little too much on political solutions at the national level. This requires supermajority support to take action. Still, there are other ways to have a dramatic impact. In the U.S., we are not only voters, but we are also consumers and investors. A minority can have profound and very dramatic impact on the course of events. One reason why solar costs dropped so dramatically was this combination of changes in investment strategy and consumers looking for more environmentally friendly alternatives. Convincing a lot of local governments to participate in these trends proved much easier than dramatically changing the federal government approach. Federal support of local innovation did help, but this was through largely marginal programs not involving a massive Green New Deal. Not that the Green New Deal is not worth pursuing, only that if it is enacted it will come relatively late in the process. After the effects of changes in consumer and investment orientation among a minority have already started to kick in.

Sure, transitioning to a new green economy will involve a lot of very technical changes. Things like demand on rare earth metals will need to be more carefully thought out. Some of that will be through the simple working out of market forces. Growing scarcity will increase prices and encourage the search for an adoption of alternatives. Recycling, reuse, and diversion will also be important. Diversion especially means changing demand patterns in the first place. State and local government programs can be very important even if the federal government again initially lags behind. Changes in consumer and investment orientation can also be helpful. I speak of this as happening in the future, but really it is just an extension of things that have already started to occur.
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caltrek
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Post removed - unnecessary.
Oh, that was a nice post. I am sorry you decided to pull it.

At any rate, as if to help me demonstrate a point I made, I came across this article:

On the Other Side?
January 12, 2022

https://www.producebluebook.com/2022/01 ... orefront/#

Introduction:
(Blue Book Services) Countering the trend for more packaging is the desire for more sustainable measures, especially as climate change becomes of greater concern to consumers.

A 2020 survey by the IBM Institute for Business Value in association with the National Retail Federation found that 57 percent of consumers are willing to change their purchasing habits to reduce negative environmental impacts.

Further, products marketed as sustainable have expanded more than seven times faster than other items, according to a 2020 report from the New York University Stern Center for Sustainable Business.

Some of the steps being taken include printing recycling instructions on packaging, as well as ensuring the packaging actually is recyclable; using post-consumer recycled plastics to make new packaging; using sustainable packaging materials as an alternative to plastic; and foregoing packaging entirely, if possible.

“There is so much work to do in this space still, and so much area for innovation,” says Laura Himes, senior produce merchandising director at Walmart...Bentonville, AR.
Don't mourn, organize.

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A new analysis estimates that American big box stores could meet half of their electricity needs by covering their roofs in solar panels.
America’s big box stores have almost 7.2 billion square feet of available rooftop space, and could host enough solar photovoltaic capacity to generate more than 84.4 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity each year.26 That’s enough to power almost 8 million average U.S. homes, or more than 30,400 average Walmart stores. The solar energy generation potential of big box stores is equivalent to almost 65% of all the electricity generated by solar in the U.S. in 2020.
https://environmentamerica.org/sites/en ... _20_22.pdf
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caltrek
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The World's Massive Need for More Solar Panels Has One Shiny Catch
Calre Watson
January 21, 2022

https://www.sciencealert.com/solar-pane ... on-problem

Introduction:
(Science Alert) There's a major catch to the world's need for solar panels, a new analysis suggests. The booming solar panel market – which is critical for a clean energy future – could demand close to half the world's aluminum by 2050. Thankfully, there are ways we can mitigate this.

Unlike more precious metals, such as the lithium and cobalt used in rechargeable batteries, the scarcity of aluminum is not the issue; in fact, it is the most abundant metal on Earth. But the production of pure aluminum which is used in solar panel frames comes with a huge energy cost that could translate to bulk emissions.

According to the International Energy Agency, solar panels are predicted to provide roughly a third of the world's total electricity demand by 2050. In 2019, just over 2 percent of global electricity came from solar – but solar is producing the cheapest electricity in history and renewable energy is being installed at a record rate.

"This represents an enormous manufacturing task that will create a demand for a variety of minerals," a team of photovoltaics researchers, led by Alison Lennon from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia, explains in their paper.

As the researchers outline, some solar roadmaps predict the world will need 85 times more solar energy than we currently produce to limit global warming to safe levels, although predictions vary and some projections might underestimate how much solar – and aluminum – we actually need.
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A Device that Wraps Around Hot Surfaces Turns Wasted Heat into Electricity
January 21, 2022

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/940877

Introduction:
(Penn State via EurekAlert) The energy systems that power our lives also produce wasted heat — like heat that radiates off hot water pipes in buildings and exhaust pipes on vehicles. A new flexible thermoelectric generator can wrap around pipes and other hot surfaces and convert wasted heat into electricity more efficiently than previously possible, according to scientists at Penn State and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

“A large amount of heat from the energy we consume is essentially being thrown away, often dispersed right into the atmosphere,” said Shashank Priya, associate vice president for research and professor of materials science and engineering at Penn State. “We haven’t had cost-effective ways with conformal shapes to trap and convert that heat to useable energy. This research opens that door.”

Penn State researchers have been working to improve the performance of thermoelectric generators — devices that can convert differences in temperature to electricity. When the devices are placed near a heat source, electrons moving from the hot side to the cold side produce an electric current, the scientists said.

In prior work, the team created rigid devices that were more efficient than commercial units in high-temperature applications. Now the team has developed a new manufacturing process to produce flexible devices that offer higher power output and efficiency, the scientists said.

“These results provide a promising pathway toward widespread utilization of thermoelectric technology into waste heat recovery application,” said Wenjie Li, assistant research professor at Penn State. “This could have a significant impact on the development of practical thermal to electrical generators.”
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Private Sector Needs to Boost Financing Efforts to Speed up Transition to Net Zero
by Sarmad Khan
January 19, 2022

https://www.thenationalnews.com/busines ... -net-zero/

Introduction:
(The National) Public-sector financing alone is not enough to tackle the global energy transition and the private sector will have to drive the change if the world is to meet its 2050 climate pledge, the chief financial officer of Siemens Energy has said.

Meeting net-zero targets will rely on breakthrough technology such as energy efficiency solutions, carbon capture and hydrogen-based fuels, Maria Ferraro told the fourth edition of the Abu Dhabi Sustainable Finance Forum on Wednesday.

A huge amount of funding is needed to scale up this technology to a commercial level, and governments need to set up incentive programme for investors to help accelerate its development, she said.

“The climate crisis can’t be solved by public capital alone,” said Ms Ferraro, who is on the executive board of Germany’s clean energy technology company.

“A successful and sustainable transition also requires the mobilisation of private capital, and while the global financial community is rising to this challenge, an investment gap remains due to the supply and demand side finance issues.”
caltrek's comment: So, an analyst writing for a government friendly news organization in a country that in the past has been heavily dependent upon oil exports can see the importance of achieving the Net Zero goal. Yet Republicans and a couple of Democrats in the U.S. don't seem to be able to grasp that concept. Go figure.
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Supreme Court to weigh limits on reach of Clean Water Act
The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider reining in federal regulation of private property under the nation’s main anti-water pollution law, the Clean Water Act. The justices agreed to hear a business-backed appeal from Chantell and Michael Sackett, who have wanted to build a home close to Priest Lake in Idaho for 15 years and won an earlier round in their legal fight at the Supreme Court. The Environmental Protection Agency ordered work on the Sackett’s property halted in 2007, determining that part of it was a wetlands that could not be disturbed without a permit.

The new court case, to be argued in the fall, tests the reach of the Clean Water Act beyond rivers, lakes and streams. Under an opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy in 2006, regulators can block development on properties far from waterways as long as they prove a significant connection to the waterways. Kennedy said the wetlands must “significantly affect the chemical, physical and biological integrity” of nearby navigable waters to come under the Clean Water Act. No other justice joined Kennedy’s writing, and four conservatives wrote that they would allow regulation only if there was a continuous surface connection from the wetlands to the lake, river or stream. There is no such connection on the Sackett’s property. Among the four were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. They now have three colleagues on the right, Justices Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh, who took Kennedy’s seat when he retired in 2018.

Jon Devine, director of federal water policy at the National Resources Defense Council, said the court had agreed to hear a case that could “gut our ability to protect wetlands and other waters. It’s a threat to the clean water our communities depend on for drinking, swimming, fishing and other uses.”


Read more: https://bangordailynews.com/2022/01/24/ ... water-act/
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