Climate Scientist Calls For Austerity To Avert Warming

[vt]

https://www.ted.com/talks/alice_bows...age=en#t-76973

[santafe2]

Re: Climate Scientist Calls For Austerity To Avert Warming

https://www.ted.com/talks/alice_bows...age=en#t-76973

...requires austerity in developed countries. Well that's not going to happen.

[vt]

Re: Climate Scientist Calls For Austerity To Avert Warming

Posted because of the irony of liberal climate concerns vs. liberal aversion to austerity.

I do think we have to work to protect the environment and reduce fossil fuel use. Too bad they have an irrational fear of nuclear power, especially with newer and smaller models of plants.

[santafe2]

Re: Climate Scientist Calls For Austerity To Avert Warming

Posted because of the irony of liberal climate concerns vs. liberal aversion to austerity.

I do think we have to work to protect the environment and reduce fossil fuel use. Too bad they have an irrational fear of nuclear power, especially with newer and smaller models of plants.

Mostly true with older "liberals" vt, but not so much with the younger set who will have to live with this world after 2050. Also, I don't see any chance that nuclear energy will not be part of the mix when the world decides to get serious about alternative energy. That could still be a decade or two away but it's coming. We can't kick coal to the curb, (a good idea), without picking up nuclear energy.
This is the strongest El Nino since 1998, maybe it will help nudge policy in the right direction. We'll see.

[vt]

Re: Climate Scientist Calls For Austerity To Avert Warming

I think solar can play an increasing part, Santa Fe. Plus, as EJ says, gains will come from conservation; though the effect may be somewhat offset by future growth.

Technology will certainly play a huge part in the equation.

What about newer technologies such as nuclear fusion? It may be getting closer to fruition, not in the next few years but next decade.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ethansie...uclear-fusion/

[llanlad2]

Re: Climate Scientist Calls For Austerity To Avert Warming

Mostly true with older "liberals" vt, but not so much with the younger set who will have to live with this world after 2050. Also, I don't see any chance that nuclear energy will not be part of the mix when the world decides to get serious about alternative energy. That could still be a decade or two away but it's coming. We can't kick coal to the curb, (a good idea), without picking up nuclear energy.
This is the strongest El Nino since 1998, maybe it will help nudge policy in the right direction. We'll see.

The UK has just signed off building on 2 new nuclear power stations with a third set to get the go ahead. There has been surprisingly little opposition. They are being built in collaboration with the Chinese and French. The UK energy policy going forward is to have a mix of energy sources; a balanced portfolio approach if you like.

[dcarrigg]

Re: Climate Scientist Calls For Austerity To Avert Warming

Posted because of the irony of liberal climate concerns vs. liberal aversion to austerity.

I do think we have to work to protect the environment and reduce fossil fuel use. Too bad they have an irrational fear of nuclear power, especially with newer and smaller models of plants.

Polls show nuclear is more popular than coal with Democrats, Independents, and Republicans. There's more nuclear proposals and construction in the works in the US than there has been in a long time. Even the Obama Administration has been giving out loan guarantees to get the financing going, especially since Moniz took over at DOE.

[Polish_Silver]

Re: Climate Scientist Calls For Austerity To Avert Warming

Warms my heart to see that blue square so close to my home. It seems all of them are boiling water reactors or pressurized water reactors. No molten salt, travelling wave,
pebble bed, or high temperature gas reactors. Will I live to see that?

How much of CO2 emission is due to electric power generation?

I still don't see convincing evidence that the climate is changing more now than it has in the past, or that the change is due to CO2.

The latest view of human evolution is that it was climate change that caused human intelligence to increase---the climate in Africa was changing so quickly from arid to damp that adaptation could not be done genetically. (This was regional, not global, climate change).

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: Climate Scientist Calls For Austerity To Avert Warming

...How much of CO2 emission is due to electric power generation?...

From the US EPA for the US





Other sources have electricity a bit higher at 40%

[santafe2]

Re: Climate Scientist Calls For Austerity To Avert Warming

I think solar can play an increasing part, Santa Fe. Plus, as EJ says, gains will come from conservation; though the effect may be somewhat offset by future growth.

As it happens vt, I had a flight this morning and ran into a friend of mine who is still deeply involved in the large scale US solar project development business. I've been out of the loop now for a couple of years and in that time the scale of projects has moved from 1-10MW to 10-100MW. Most companies who provide equipment in this area of development and those who will provide the build-out, (EPCs), are completely booked through 2016 with many solidly booked into 2017 with contracts that support the lower subsidy, (30% going down to 10%).

To give you a reference point, when I started in the solar industry in 2004, total installed solar capacity in the US was 58MW. Today that's a single utility scale project. Solar won't provide the majority of even stationary energy needs but it will be significant. The utility companies who were the biggest opponents of solar even 2-3 years ago now sometimes sound like they'd invented solar. It's an absolutely brain dead simple way to provide energy and now that many of the large players have figured out how to profit from it, they love it.

I did notice that all of the new nuclear plants are in the eastern US. I'd guess that's because land in the east is much more expensive than land in the western US. Unless you're a rabbit, an acre of land in the Southwestern US desert has almost no value. Sorry shiny!, there's a fair bit of hyperbole in that last sentence.

[vt]

Re: Climate Scientist Calls For Austerity To Avert Warming

Whatever happens we need to increase solar and nuclear significantly. The emerging powers are getting very perturbed:

http://theweek.com/articles/584216/w...others-throats

[gwynedd1]

Re: Climate Scientist Calls For Austerity To Avert Warming

Posted because of the irony of liberal climate concerns vs. liberal aversion to austerity.

I do think we have to work to protect the environment and reduce fossil fuel use. Too bad they have an irrational fear of nuclear power, especially with newer and smaller models of plants.

Too bad indeed. We were poring gasoline in a kerosene heater and now everyone is afraid to use it. Especially tragic since its a middle class fuel. This energy is created by an educated labour force .

[shiny!]

Re: Climate Scientist Calls For Austerity To Avert Warming

Unless you're a rabbit, an acre of land in the Southwestern US desert has almost no value. Sorry shiny!, there's a fair bit of hyperbole in that last sentence.

You'll get no argument from me! The only value of a desert IMO is the relative lack of cockroaches and palmetto bugs compared to wetter climes.

[Polish_Silver]

Nuclear 1/3 of the way

From the US EPA for the US





Other sources have electricity a bit higher at 40%

Completely removing fossil fuels from electric power would cut co2 by 31%. But that will take decades.

[santafe2]

Re: Nuclear 1/3 of the way

Completely removing fossil fuels from electric power would cut co2 by 31%. But that will take decades.

And, that 31% is less than 5% when considered on a worldwide scale. Clearly China, India and Russia will have to partner with us to make any difference. I would list the EU and Japan but they're well ahead in this area. What is not often discussed is that even if we stopped 100% of C02 production the planet will likely continue to warm slightly for hundreds of years as the oceans off-load CO2.
And we know with some certainty that we, as a global community, won't stop emitting CO2 unless we observe several catastrophic outcomes that have direct effects in the 1st world. I don't expect much from the Paris conference, (COP21) but of course thousands of people will fly there and fly back.