This should be the top story in all news today, the release of huge amounts of info and research on climate change. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-report-united-nations-intergovernmental-panel-ipcc/ We are getting to serious breaking points in our society and there are still too many people and entities dragging their knuckles.
Summary: The climate situation is really bad. There's a very small window to correct it, so we are pretty much [uck fay]ed.
We cannot worry about what China or Russia or Mozambique is doing because we cannot control them, we can only do our best where we can. So. What can we do about this as a country?
We absolutely could do something about China and Mozambique. Lead. Develop and deploy the technology and systems. And no one wants to hear it, but the USA is absolutely the biggest driver of this historically and even indirectly today. The Biden Administration just put out a statement asking OPEC to produce MORE oil to keep gas prices low and promote "energy security." We have not and continue to not really try.
bro, I've been saying that long before MAGA hats. it isn't political, shipping empty containers back to china to get more cheap shit is literally killing us and propping up that mess AND hindering sustainability
It's one of the few things I agreed with Trump on. I can't believe we let ourselves be so dependent on dipshits
This and going full electric vehicles is probably the single easiest and best solution over the next 15 years.
cheap shit is built in factories powered by coal to sell to us to finance an authoritarian state. China thinking has nothing to do with it, they are playing the game, we should change it.
It's simple. Cheap labor and huge market for products. Once you fully realize how little any of the "ruling class" truly cares about America (or anything else other than their net worth and image), everything makes a lot more sense.
people don't realize that this would be more expensive than increasing renewables and efficiency. Nuclear isn't getting cheaper. I am not against nuclear, but it does not scale economically. one reason why is that hourly power demand is quite variable and nuclear generation is not economically elastic. a plant at less than 80 or 90 % capacity is losing money or hella expensive, so to meet peak demand with mostly nuclear you would way over build. It is a good baseload but gets pricey to add capacity above base.
It makes me sick. When I worked for the furniture store, we would get containers of Chinese shit. Half would be damaged, I would have to rebuild it. I asked why we did it that way, it's cheaper that way. I would spend weeks pretty much rebuilding it, I guess I needed to make more
Even if it's the base and we fill in the gaps with renewable, then that's a better solution than the current. I'm pretty much convinced we can not be totally dependent on one form. Run baseline with nuclear and fill in gaps with wind, (although as little wind as possible because the turbines freak me out), solar, and yes, even fossil where needed. But, it's all about short term ROI and fighting the environmental wackos, thus we don't.
storage is how to get deeper penetration of renewables. it is interesting you say wind turbines freak you out. I assume you mean the classic 3 blades on a monopole variety. there is a percentage of the pop who have this aversion and about the same sized percentage that are attracted to them. there are different designs possible including ones with no rotating element. so it may be possible to innovate wind technology that won't be disturbing to you.
It's a really stupid reason, honestly. Few movies have ever messed with my mind, but for some reason the Tom Cruise "War of the Worlds" did. And those things, for whatever reason, remind me of those walkers from that movie and just freak me out.