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(10-13-2021, 05:44 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: I hope to see a tax system that fosters small business. Maybe the new sort of housing will be more like a block in New York City in which the lowest floor has stores and shops -- with part of the housing block having room for elementary schools, medical offices, daycare centers, postal substations, repair shops, and places of worship. We will need small business for that. One of the glories of small business is that it can't buy the political system as was the norm for giant enterprises in the neoliberal era.
I'll respond to the rest later, but....this. 100% this.
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(02-18-2022, 11:11 PM)JasonBlack Wrote: (10-13-2021, 05:44 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: I hope to see a tax system that fosters small business. Maybe the new sort of housing will be more like a block in New York City in which the lowest floor has stores and shops -- with part of the housing block having room for elementary schools, medical offices, daycare centers, postal substations, repair shops, and places of worship. We will need small business for that. One of the glories of small business is that it can't buy the political system as was the norm for giant enterprises in the neoliberal era.
I'll respond to the rest later, but....this. 100% this.
I agree, small business is a good thing to support. Most people can't be small business entrepreneurs, although some can be if our society makes room for them by not bestowing such breaks on big corporations. Small business people should not allow themselves to be made followers of conservative ideologies on the promise of low taxes and regulations, but realize that its the liberals that protect them from being swallowed up in monopolies and oligarchies and which favor an economy that fosters economic growth among the people rather than just for the biggest and richest bosses as conservatives foster. It is often hard for struggling small business to recognize which political side is really most helpful to them and which is not, which requires them to see beyond their day to day pressures and see the bigger picture.
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02-19-2022, 01:30 AM
(This post was last modified: 02-19-2022, 01:32 AM by Eric the Green.)
(02-14-2022, 03:14 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: We are stuck with moving about with fossil fuels until we run out of them because fossil fuels are profitable. Profit is the only virtue that our economic system recognizes.When the profit disappears, and only then, does the business die. I could imagine automobiles being driven onto and off carrier cars so that people have short distances (most of the time) for driving. Really, the railroads would have been wise to introduce rental cars at stations so that someone could rent a car at the closest station to one's destination.
One of the supreme ironies of the disruptive protest is that it is the one thing Big Business most hates: a strike.If Corporate America could get away with it, unions would be outlawed so that workers could be 'free' to sign peonage contracts, possibly hereditary.Serfdom, USA!
No, we are not stuck with fossil fuels if in the next 10 years we make a big project of switching to renewables. This begins with passing legislation like Build Back Better, which one fossil fuel state phony-Democratic senator is now blocking. If such an effort is blocked by Republicans and fossil fuel Democrats, then it won't be done. But that will not have happened because fossil fuels are profitable. That will have happened because we were unable to dislodge the profit motive from dominating our politics. It is simply and only a matter of political will, by embracing the law and politics as part of the solution and not allowing profits to be the only dictator of our economy.
If we don't do this, then the next 2T and 4T will be too late; the tipping points in the Amazon, the Arctic permafrost, the Atlantic ocean current, and others, will tip and it will be too late to change our current course heading us to hothouse Earth within the next 2 centuries. Global warming feedback loops will be impossible to break. We may feel the effects more severely in future turnings tha we do now, but we will also be out of time to reverse course. People are already experiencing unacceptable damages and deaths from the breakdown of our climate. It is a violation of both conscience and self-interest to ignore them.
It is up to the people to realize this and demand and vote for action by voting Democratic and pressuring their leaders to act during the 2020s decade. I wonder how people in the eastern 2/3 of the United States are bearing up, as storm after storm day after day pounds them this Winter already. No-one here should try to argue or avoid facing this issue. Every poster except Classic Xer should be able to understand what's happening.
The 2020s is the last reform era in which action will be possible before the tipping points set in.
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(02-19-2022, 01:30 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: (02-14-2022, 03:14 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: We are stuck with moving about with fossil fuels until we run out of them because fossil fuels are profitable. Profit is the only virtue that our economic system recognizes.When the profit disappears, and only then, does the business die. I could imagine automobiles being driven onto and off carrier cars so that people have short distances (most of the time) for driving. Really, the railroads would have been wise to introduce rental cars at stations so that someone could rent a car at the closest station to one's destination.
One of the supreme ironies of the disruptive protest is that it is the one thing Big Business most hates: a strike.If Corporate America could get away with it, unions would be outlawed so that workers could be 'free' to sign peonage contracts, possibly hereditary.Serfdom, USA!
No, we are not stuck with fossil fuels if in the next 10 years we make a big project of switching to renewables. This begins with passing legislation like Build Back Better, which one fossil fuel state phony-Democratic senator is now blocking. If such an effort is blocked by Republicans and fossil fuel Democrats, then it won't be done. But that will not have happened because fossil fuels are profitable. That will have happened because we were unable to dislodge the profit motive from dominating our politics. It is simply and only a matter of political will, by embracing the law and politics as part of the solution and not allowing profits to be the only dictator of our economy.
If we don't do this, then the next 2T and 4T will be too late; the tipping points in the Amazon, the Arctic permafrost, the Atlantic ocean current, and others, will tip and it will be too late to change our current course heading us to hothouse Earth within the next 2 centuries. Global warming feedback loops will be impossible to break. We may feel the effects more severely in future turnings tha we do now, but we will also be out of time to reverse course. People are already experiencing unacceptable damages and deaths from the breakdown of our climate. It is a violation of both conscience and self-interest to ignore them.
It is up to the people to realize this and demand and vote for action by voting Democratic and pressuring their leaders to act during the 2020s decade. I wonder how people in the eastern 2/3 of the United States are bearing up, as storm after storm day after day pounds them this Winter already. No-one here should try to argue or avoid facing this issue. Every poster except Classic Xer should be able to understand what's happening.
The 2020s is the last reform era in which action will be possible before the tipping points set in.
I agree, up to a point. We still have the problem of base load, and that will be even more important in an all-electric world. Renewables do not operate at all levels at all times, and there is no capacity to build enough energy storage to bridge the gap. Today's infrastructure does this by design. In this most selfish of times, it will be impossible to get people to sacrifice their precious convenience for half measures, so the only current base load source will have to be part of the solution, or there will be no solution. I'm not fond of fission reactors, but they are carbon-free and highly efficient. Newer designs are much better than the old, and their expected life of 50 years is ideal. In 50 years, fusion will be perfected, and this issue will just go away.
Intelligence is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom, but they all play well together.
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(02-19-2022, 01:30 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: (02-14-2022, 03:14 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: We are stuck with moving about with fossil fuels until we run out of them because fossil fuels are profitable. Profit is the only virtue that our economic system recognizes.When the profit disappears, and only then, does the business die. I could imagine automobiles being driven onto and off carrier cars so that people have short distances (most of the time) for driving. Really, the railroads would have been wise to introduce rental cars at stations so that someone could rent a car at the closest station to one's destination.
One of the supreme ironies of the disruptive protest is that it is the one thing Big Business most hates: a strike.If Corporate America could get away with it, unions would be outlawed so that workers could be 'free' to sign peonage contracts, possibly hereditary.Serfdom, USA!
No, we are not stuck with fossil fuels if in the next 10 years we make a big project of switching to renewables. This begins with passing legislation like Build Back Better, which one fossil fuel state phony-Democratic senator is now blocking. If such an effort is blocked by Republicans and fossil fuel Democrats, then it won't be done. But that will not have happened because fossil fuels are profitable. That will have happened because we were unable to dislodge the profit motive from dominating our politics. It is simply and only a matter of political will, by embracing the law and politics as part of the solution and not allowing profits to be the only dictator of our economy.
We are stuck with fossil fuels until we are compelled to divest ourselves of vehicles that depend upon fossil fuels. Buildings will be easy to retrofit (change the roofing to solar panels). I'm driving a twelve-year-old car, which shows how durable some are. Oil changes are cheap compared to trade-ins. We will need another 'cash-for-clunkers' arrangement in which to get 'gas buggies' off the road. That's unlikely until we get another scary downturn. I'm guessing that the average car or pick-up lasts fifteen years before it is scrapped, and that allows for causes other than crashes, fires, and natural disasters.
Some countries will not license a vehicle after ten years, and such countries can comel the steady replacement of gas vehicles with electric ones. We are not Singapore.
Quote:If we don't do this, then the next 2T and 4T will be too late; the tipping points in the Amazon, the Arctic permafrost, the Atlantic ocean current, and others, will tip and it will be too late to change our current course heading us to hothouse Earth within the next 2 centuries. Global warming feedback loops will be impossible to break. We may feel the effects more severely in future turnings tha we do now, but we will also be out of time to reverse course. People are already experiencing unacceptable damages and deaths from the breakdown of our climate. It is a violation of both conscience and self-interest to ignore them.
Global warming is still incremental, if entirely in a bad way. That is not to say that it is welcome; see also tobacco and alcohol upon health. As it is a good idea to reduce alcohol consumption to an irreducible minimum and completely quit smoking, it will be good for us to divest ourselves of many wasteful practices, including gas-powered vehicles.
Quote:It is up to the people to realize this and demand and vote for action by voting Democratic and pressuring their leaders to act during the 2020s decade. I wonder how people in the eastern 2/3 of the United States are bearing up, as storm after storm day after day pounds them this Winter already. No-one here should try to argue or avoid facing this issue. Every poster except Classic Xer should be able to understand what's happening.
The 2020s is the last reform era in which action will be possible before the tipping points set in.
Reform is still possible in a 1T.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
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02-20-2022, 03:54 AM
(This post was last modified: 02-20-2022, 03:55 AM by Eric the Green.)
(02-19-2022, 02:07 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: (02-19-2022, 01:30 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: (02-14-2022, 03:14 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: We are stuck with moving about with fossil fuels until we run out of them because fossil fuels are profitable. Profit is the only virtue that our economic system recognizes.When the profit disappears, and only then, does the business die. I could imagine automobiles being driven onto and off carrier cars so that people have short distances (most of the time) for driving. Really, the railroads would have been wise to introduce rental cars at stations so that someone could rent a car at the closest station to one's destination.
One of the supreme ironies of the disruptive protest is that it is the one thing Big Business most hates: a strike.If Corporate America could get away with it, unions would be outlawed so that workers could be 'free' to sign peonage contracts, possibly hereditary.Serfdom, USA!
No, we are not stuck with fossil fuels if in the next 10 years we make a big project of switching to renewables. This begins with passing legislation like Build Back Better, which one fossil fuel state phony-Democratic senator is now blocking. If such an effort is blocked by Republicans and fossil fuel Democrats, then it won't be done. But that will not have happened because fossil fuels are profitable. That will have happened because we were unable to dislodge the profit motive from dominating our politics. It is simply and only a matter of political will, by embracing the law and politics as part of the solution and not allowing profits to be the only dictator of our economy.
We are stuck with fossil fuels until we are compelled to divest ourselves of vehicles that depend upon fossil fuels. Buildings will be easy to retrofit (change the roofing to solar panels). I'm driving a twelve-year-old car, which shows how durable some are. Oil changes are cheap compared to trade-ins. We will need another 'cash-for-clunkers' arrangement in which to get 'gas buggies' off the road. That's unlikely until we get another scary downturn. I'm guessing that the average car or pick-up lasts fifteen years before it is scrapped, and that allows for causes other than crashes, fires, and natural disasters.
Some countries will not license a vehicle after ten years, and such countries can compel the steady replacement of gas vehicles with electric ones. We are not Singapore.
Quote:If we don't do this, then the next 2T and 4T will be too late; the tipping points in the Amazon, the Arctic permafrost, the Atlantic ocean current, and others, will tip and it will be too late to change our current course heading us to hothouse Earth within the next 2 centuries. Global warming feedback loops will be impossible to break. We may feel the effects more severely in future turnings tha we do now, but we will also be out of time to reverse course. People are already experiencing unacceptable damages and deaths from the breakdown of our climate. It is a violation of both conscience and self-interest to ignore them.
Global warming is still incremental, if entirely in a bad way. That is not to say that it is welcome; see also tobacco and alcohol upon health. As it is a good idea to reduce alcohol consumption to an irreducible minimum and completely quit smoking, it will be good for us to divest ourselves of many wasteful practices, including gas-powered vehicles.
Quote:It is up to the people to realize this and demand and vote for action by voting Democratic and pressuring their leaders to act during the 2020s decade. I wonder how people in the eastern 2/3 of the United States are bearing up, as storm after storm day after day pounds them this Winter already. No-one here should try to argue or avoid facing this issue. Every poster except Classic Xer should be able to understand what's happening.
The 2020s is the last reform era in which action will be possible before the tipping points set in.
Reform is still possible in a 1T.
The record of 1Ts is that change and reform gets blocked or postponed and the mood is either consolidation or retrenchment and going backward. Global warming will soon no longer bear any resemblance to "incremental". It is already a huge disaster with millions affected, and we can't turn a blind eye. And tipping points are being approached. Within 20 years we'll be on a course beyond the point of no return to hothouse Earth. Cycles all indicate that the 2020s is supposed to be a reform era, if we push for it. It will be the last chance to hold back global warming. Boomers like us need to speak up and lead and make sure our millennial friends and children vote. If they do, they have to votes to get the reform era moving.
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02-20-2022, 04:02 AM
(This post was last modified: 02-20-2022, 04:13 AM by Eric the Green.)
(02-19-2022, 09:35 AM)David Horn Wrote: (02-19-2022, 01:30 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: (02-14-2022, 03:14 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: We are stuck with moving about with fossil fuels until we run out of them because fossil fuels are profitable. Profit is the only virtue that our economic system recognizes.When the profit disappears, and only then, does the business die. I could imagine automobiles being driven onto and off carrier cars so that people have short distances (most of the time) for driving. Really, the railroads would have been wise to introduce rental cars at stations so that someone could rent a car at the closest station to one's destination.
One of the supreme ironies of the disruptive protest is that it is the one thing Big Business most hates: a strike.If Corporate America could get away with it, unions would be outlawed so that workers could be 'free' to sign peonage contracts, possibly hereditary.Serfdom, USA!
No, we are not stuck with fossil fuels if in the next 10 years we make a big project of switching to renewables. This begins with passing legislation like Build Back Better, which one fossil fuel state phony-Democratic senator is now blocking. If such an effort is blocked by Republicans and fossil fuel Democrats, then it won't be done. But that will not have happened because fossil fuels are profitable. That will have happened because we were unable to dislodge the profit motive from dominating our politics. It is simply and only a matter of political will, by embracing the law and politics as part of the solution and not allowing profits to be the only dictator of our economy.
If we don't do this, then the next 2T and 4T will be too late; the tipping points in the Amazon, the Arctic permafrost, the Atlantic ocean current, and others, will tip and it will be too late to change our current course heading us to hothouse Earth within the next 2 centuries. Global warming feedback loops will be impossible to break. We may feel the effects more severely in future turnings tha we do now, but we will also be out of time to reverse course. People are already experiencing unacceptable damages and deaths from the breakdown of our climate. It is a violation of both conscience and self-interest to ignore them.
It is up to the people to realize this and demand and vote for action by voting Democratic and pressuring their leaders to act during the 2020s decade. I wonder how people in the eastern 2/3 of the United States are bearing up, as storm after storm day after day pounds them this Winter already. No-one here should try to argue or avoid facing this issue. Every poster except Classic Xer should be able to understand what's happening.
The 2020s is the last reform era in which action will be possible before the tipping points set in.
I agree, up to a point. We still have the problem of base load, and that will be even more important in an all-electric world. Renewables do not operate at all levels at all times, and there is no capacity to build enough energy storage to bridge the gap. Today's infrastructure does this by design. In this most selfish of times, it will be impossible to get people to sacrifice their precious convenience for half measures, so the only current base load source will have to be part of the solution, or there will be no solution. I'm not fond of fission reactors, but they are carbon-free and highly efficient. Newer designs are much better than the old, and their expected life of 50 years is ideal. In 50 years, fusion will be perfected, and this issue will just go away.
Batteries to store electricity generated by renewables are being developed and deployed. We don't have to close all nuclear plants, but it is renewables and batteries that are being designed and improved, and it is to that we should look. Nuclear power plants will be very vulnerable in a world full of fires, floods and storms everywhere, and meltdowns can be catastrophic.
It depends on location just how much nuclear is needed. In California is it being phased out and renewable energy buildout is proceeding apace, and we have lots of hydro. Nearby states to CA can receive excess solar from CA which is often happening already, and CA can receive excess hydropower from up north. Other states and nations may need some nuclear to keep the electricity flowing. Some states have lots of hydropower and windpower, and tidal energy has hardly been tapped. In some countries biofuels work well. Countries in more southern latitudes have potentially many times all the solar power they would ever need.
Building new nuclear plants is slow and expensive, while renewables are expanding at a fast pace. Therefore it is the best route to replace fossil fuels now, when this is desparately needed, even if nuclear can be part of the plan too.
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(02-20-2022, 04:02 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: (02-19-2022, 09:35 AM)David Horn Wrote: (02-19-2022, 01:30 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: (02-14-2022, 03:14 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: We are stuck with moving about with fossil fuels until we run out of them because fossil fuels are profitable. Profit is the only virtue that our economic system recognizes.When the profit disappears, and only then, does the business die. I could imagine automobiles being driven onto and off carrier cars so that people have short distances (most of the time) for driving. Really, the railroads would have been wise to introduce rental cars at stations so that someone could rent a car at the closest station to one's destination.
One of the supreme ironies of the disruptive protest is that it is the one thing Big Business most hates: a strike.If Corporate America could get away with it, unions would be outlawed so that workers could be 'free' to sign peonage contracts, possibly hereditary.Serfdom, USA!
No, we are not stuck with fossil fuels if in the next 10 years we make a big project of switching to renewables. This begins with passing legislation like Build Back Better, which one fossil fuel state phony-Democratic senator is now blocking. If such an effort is blocked by Republicans and fossil fuel Democrats, then it won't be done. But that will not have happened because fossil fuels are profitable. That will have happened because we were unable to dislodge the profit motive from dominating our politics. It is simply and only a matter of political will, by embracing the law and politics as part of the solution and not allowing profits to be the only dictator of our economy.
If we don't do this, then the next 2T and 4T will be too late; the tipping points in the Amazon, the Arctic permafrost, the Atlantic ocean current, and others, will tip and it will be too late to change our current course heading us to hothouse Earth within the next 2 centuries. Global warming feedback loops will be impossible to break. We may feel the effects more severely in future turnings tha we do now, but we will also be out of time to reverse course. People are already experiencing unacceptable damages and deaths from the breakdown of our climate. It is a violation of both conscience and self-interest to ignore them.
It is up to the people to realize this and demand and vote for action by voting Democratic and pressuring their leaders to act during the 2020s decade. I wonder how people in the eastern 2/3 of the United States are bearing up, as storm after storm day after day pounds them this Winter already. No-one here should try to argue or avoid facing this issue. Every poster except Classic Xer should be able to understand what's happening.
The 2020s is the last reform era in which action will be possible before the tipping points set in.
I agree, up to a point. We still have the problem of base load, and that will be even more important in an all-electric world. Renewables do not operate at all levels at all times, and there is no capacity to build enough energy storage to bridge the gap. Today's infrastructure does this by design. In this most selfish of times, it will be impossible to get people to sacrifice their precious convenience for half measures, so the only current base load source will have to be part of the solution, or there will be no solution. I'm not fond of fission reactors, but they are carbon-free and highly efficient. Newer designs are much better than the old, and their expected life of 50 years is ideal. In 50 years, fusion will be perfected, and this issue will just go away.
Batteries to store electricity generated by renewables are being developed and deployed. We don't have to close all nuclear plants, but it is renewables and batteries that are being designed and improved, and it is to that we should look. Nuclear power plants will be very vulnerable in a world full of fires, floods and storms everywhere, and meltdowns can be catastrophic.
It depends on location just how much nuclear is needed. In California is it being phased out and renewable energy buildout is proceeding apace, and we have lots of hydro. Nearby states to CA can receive excess solar from CA which is often happening already, and CA can receive excess hydropower from up north. Other states and nations may need some nuclear to keep the electricity flowing. Some states have lots of hydropower and windpower, and tidal energy has hardly been tapped. In some countries biofuels work well. Countries in more southern latitudes have potentially many times all the solar power they would ever need.
Building new nuclear plants is slow and expensive, while renewables are expanding at a fast pace. Therefore it is the best route to replace fossil fuels now, when this is desparately needed, even if nuclear can be part of the plan too.
No offense here, but you are in my wheelhouse on his topic. The energy density of batteries is limited by chemistry and physics. In short, to back up the Western Grid, where you live, and assuming that the backup need is roughly 20% (the rest being renewables) and the batteries as good as they can be, the battery farm would have to be the size of a small city. Even distributed into smaller battery farms, it's just not practical.
You're right about hydro and geothermal is another fully reliable source. Note: we're dismantling dams, not building new ones, so that may be limited in scope. On the cost and scope of nuclear, there have not been new technological advances there in decades. Why? Because the regulatory bodies have fallen into the mode of life extension only. While the NRE vacillates, DoE has been using the e-ARP program to encourage new ideas. Several companies are ready to build highly safe smaller plants -- many can be built in factories and transported by truck or rail. Particle bed reactors are particularly desirable.
Intelligence is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom, but they all play well together.
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02-20-2022, 05:31 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-20-2022, 05:42 PM by Eric the Green.)
(02-20-2022, 08:24 AM)David Horn Wrote: (02-20-2022, 04:02 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: (02-19-2022, 09:35 AM)David Horn Wrote: (02-19-2022, 01:30 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: (02-14-2022, 03:14 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: We are stuck with moving about with fossil fuels until we run out of them because fossil fuels are profitable. Profit is the only virtue that our economic system recognizes.When the profit disappears, and only then, does the business die. I could imagine automobiles being driven onto and off carrier cars so that people have short distances (most of the time) for driving. Really, the railroads would have been wise to introduce rental cars at stations so that someone could rent a car at the closest station to one's destination.
One of the supreme ironies of the disruptive protest is that it is the one thing Big Business most hates: a strike.If Corporate America could get away with it, unions would be outlawed so that workers could be 'free' to sign peonage contracts, possibly hereditary.Serfdom, USA!
No, we are not stuck with fossil fuels if in the next 10 years we make a big project of switching to renewables. This begins with passing legislation like Build Back Better, which one fossil fuel state phony-Democratic senator is now blocking. If such an effort is blocked by Republicans and fossil fuel Democrats, then it won't be done. But that will not have happened because fossil fuels are profitable. That will have happened because we were unable to dislodge the profit motive from dominating our politics. It is simply and only a matter of political will, by embracing the law and politics as part of the solution and not allowing profits to be the only dictator of our economy.
If we don't do this, then the next 2T and 4T will be too late; the tipping points in the Amazon, the Arctic permafrost, the Atlantic ocean current, and others, will tip and it will be too late to change our current course heading us to hothouse Earth within the next 2 centuries. Global warming feedback loops will be impossible to break. We may feel the effects more severely in future turnings tha we do now, but we will also be out of time to reverse course. People are already experiencing unacceptable damages and deaths from the breakdown of our climate. It is a violation of both conscience and self-interest to ignore them.
It is up to the people to realize this and demand and vote for action by voting Democratic and pressuring their leaders to act during the 2020s decade. I wonder how people in the eastern 2/3 of the United States are bearing up, as storm after storm day after day pounds them this Winter already. No-one here should try to argue or avoid facing this issue. Every poster except Classic Xer should be able to understand what's happening.
The 2020s is the last reform era in which action will be possible before the tipping points set in.
I agree, up to a point. We still have the problem of base load, and that will be even more important in an all-electric world. Renewables do not operate at all levels at all times, and there is no capacity to build enough energy storage to bridge the gap. Today's infrastructure does this by design. In this most selfish of times, it will be impossible to get people to sacrifice their precious convenience for half measures, so the only current base load source will have to be part of the solution, or there will be no solution. I'm not fond of fission reactors, but they are carbon-free and highly efficient. Newer designs are much better than the old, and their expected life of 50 years is ideal. In 50 years, fusion will be perfected, and this issue will just go away.
Batteries to store electricity generated by renewables are being developed and deployed. We don't have to close all nuclear plants, but it is renewables and batteries that are being designed and improved, and it is to that we should look. Nuclear power plants will be very vulnerable in a world full of fires, floods and storms everywhere, and meltdowns can be catastrophic.
It depends on location just how much nuclear is needed. In California is it being phased out and renewable energy buildout is proceeding apace, and we have lots of hydro. Nearby states to CA can receive excess solar from CA which is often happening already, and CA can receive excess hydropower from up north. Other states and nations may need some nuclear to keep the electricity flowing. Some states have lots of hydropower and windpower, and tidal energy has hardly been tapped. In some countries biofuels work well. Countries in more southern latitudes have potentially many times all the solar power they would ever need.
Building new nuclear plants is slow and expensive, while renewables are expanding at a fast pace. Therefore it is the best route to replace fossil fuels now, when this is desparately needed, even if nuclear can be part of the plan too.
No offense here, but you are in my wheelhouse on his topic. The energy density of batteries is limited by chemistry and physics. In short, to back up the Western Grid, where you live, and assuming that the backup need is roughly 20% (the rest being renewables) and the batteries as good as they can be, the battery farm would have to be the size of a small city. Even distributed into smaller battery farms, it's just not practical.
You're right about hydro and geothermal is another fully reliable source. Note: we're dismantling dams, not building new ones, so that may be limited in scope. On the cost and scope of nuclear, there have not been new technological advances there in decades. Why? Because the regulatory bodies have fallen into the mode of life extension only. While the NRE vacillates, DoE has been using the e-ARP program to encourage new ideas. Several companies are ready to build highly safe smaller plants -- many can be built in factories and transported by truck or rail. Particle bed reactors are particularly desirable.
Yes, we disagree about batteries. They do their job at the site of solar panel utility sites, and as we get back more concentrated solar power (CSP) the salt batteries are even better. Better batteries are being built all the time, for homes and utilities. Tesla is making batteries that store large amounts and are being deployed in Austrailia and elsewhere. Grid management will improve as well. Costs will come down too.
Given the urgency of ending fossil fuel use, we need to be open to ideas, and despite our differences support every alternative that we can.
It's true I don't expect much more if any from hydro. But we'd better go full blast with renewables, since their cost is down and they are already being built fast, whereas nuclear will take longer and be more expensive. I am not a fan of nuclear, especially if the waste is not recycled; but I am OK, if we must, with keeping many of the ones we have operating, and maybe a few more new ones, but location is a problem. I know about the modular plants; not sure if they are any safer. But nucs have to be built near water, and in California that means on earthquake faults. CA is not the best state for nuclear; we have to support the needed advances in renewables.
https://e360.yale.edu/features/in-boost-...n-the-rise
In Boost for Renewables, Grid-Scale Battery Storage Is on the Rise
Driven by technological advances, facilities are being built with storage systems that can hold enough renewable energy to power hundreds of thousands of homes. The advent of “big battery” technology addresses a key challenge for green energy — the intermittency of wind and solar.
BY CHERYL KATZ • DECEMBER 15, 2020
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02-21-2022, 08:28 AM
(This post was last modified: 02-21-2022, 08:28 AM by pbrower2a.)
Real improvements in the cost of energy may come more from reducing the cost of transmission than from the cost of production. One advantage of solar and wind power is the very short distance from the site of generation (solar panel or windmill) and the recipient.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
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https://e360.yale.edu/features/as-climat...ints-looms
As Climate Change Worsens, A Cascade of Tipping Points Looms
BY FRED PEARCE, DECEMBER 5, 2019
New research warns that the earth may be approaching key tipping points, including the runaway loss of ice sheets, that could fundamentally disrupt the global climate system. A growing concern is a change in ocean circulation, which could alter climate patterns in a profound way.
Some of the most alarming science surrounding climate change is the discovery that it may not happen incrementally — as a steadily rising line on a graph — but in a series of lurches as various tipping points are passed. And now comes a new concern: These tipping points can form a cascade, with each one triggering others, creating an irreversible shift to a hotter world. A new study suggests that changes to ocean circulation could be the driver of such a cascade.
A group of researchers, led by Tim Lenton at Exeter University, England, first warned in a landmark paper 11 years ago about the risk of climate tipping points. Back then, they thought the dangers would only arise when global warming exceeded 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. But last week, Lenton and six co-authors argued in the journal Nature that the risks are now much more likely and much more imminent. Some tipping points, they said, may already have been breached at the current 1 degree C of warming.
The new warning is much starker than the forecasts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which critics say has until now played down the risks of exceeding climate tipping points, in part because they are difficult to quantify.
The potential tipping points come in three forms: runaway loss of ice sheets that accelerate sea level rise; forests and other natural carbon stores such as permafrost releasing those stores into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2), accelerating warming; and the disabling of the ocean circulation system.
Researchers’ biggest fear is for the future of the ocean circulation system, which moves heat around the world and may dictate global climate. The researchers once considered these tipping points to be largely independent of each other. Now they warn that the world faces a "cascade" of abrupt shifts in the planet’s climate system, as global warming takes hold. "We might already have crossed the threshold for a cascade of inter-related tipping points," they wrote in Nature. This "could trigger a shift in the state of the Earth system as a whole," one of the authors, Will Steffen of the Australian National University in Canberra, told Yale Environment 360......
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(02-21-2022, 02:00 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: New research warns that the earth may be approaching key tipping points, including the runaway loss of ice sheets, that could fundamentally disrupt the global climate system. A growing concern is a change in ocean circulation, which could alter climate patterns in a profound way.
Much like the COVID deniers who wanted the vaccine on their deathbeds, climate deniers assume the fix can happen much later when it is not inconvenient to them. This is really bad for Xers and suicide for Millennials and younger gens. If it stays that way, this will not get fixed before catastrophe happens. Meanwhile, I'll be ashes in the urn on the mantle. Sorry, I simply can't be there to help.
Intelligence is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom, but they all play well together.
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02-21-2022, 08:32 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-21-2022, 08:35 PM by Eric the Green.)
(02-21-2022, 03:43 PM)David Horn Wrote: (02-21-2022, 02:00 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: New research warns that the earth may be approaching key tipping points, including the runaway loss of ice sheets, that could fundamentally disrupt the global climate system. A growing concern is a change in ocean circulation, which could alter climate patterns in a profound way.
Much like the COVID deniers who wanted the vaccine on their deathbeds, climate deniers assume the fix can happen much later when it is not inconvenient to them. This is really bad for Xers and suicide for Millennials and younger gens. If it stays that way, this will not get fixed before catastrophe happens. Meanwhile, I'll be ashes in the urn on the mantle. Sorry, I simply can't be there to help.
You'll be here for the remainder of the 4T, at least, probably. I don't know your health conditions but you seem alive and kicking to me. That's long enough at least to keep trying to fix climate-breakdown denial. It will be fixed in the 2020s, or not fixed. Boomers and Silents and many Xers who continue to deny may not be reachable. As the Captain in Cool Hand Luke says, "some men you just can't reach" "what we've got here is failure to communicate". But Millennials and Gen Z are the new majority of voters, and many of them can still be reached. Somehow they need to stop disapproving of Biden enough and stop blaming him for gas prices enough to get out and vote Democratic in November. That will be the most important decision any of us can ever make in the near or far future.
And if you can get behind renewables, and not just nuclear, as the fix to the climate crisis, that would be a big step, and a lot you can do. I'll make a deal with you, fellow Boomer Gray Champion. I'll be open and up to date about nuclear if you are open and up to date about renewables. Be sure to read the article on batteries I posted.
https://e360.yale.edu/features/in-boost-...n-the-rise
Here's a resource I created as a small contribution to the fix:
https://philosopherswheel.com/globalwarming.html
read and spread!
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(02-21-2022, 08:32 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: (02-21-2022, 03:43 PM)David Horn Wrote: (02-21-2022, 02:00 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: New research warns that the earth may be approaching key tipping points, including the runaway loss of ice sheets, that could fundamentally disrupt the global climate system. A growing concern is a change in ocean circulation, which could alter climate patterns in a profound way.
Much like the COVID deniers who wanted the vaccine on their deathbeds, climate deniers assume the fix can happen much later when it is not inconvenient to them. This is really bad for Xers and suicide for Millennials and younger gens. If it stays that way, this will not get fixed before catastrophe happens. Meanwhile, I'll be ashes in the urn on the mantle. Sorry, I simply can't be there to help.
You'll be here for the remainder of the 4T, at least, probably. I don't know your health conditions but you seem alive and kicking to me. That's long enough at least to keep trying to fix climate-breakdown denial. It will be fixed in the 2020s, or not fixed. Boomers and Silents and many Xers who continue to deny may not be reachable. As the Captain in Cool Hand Luke says, "some men you just can't reach" "what we've got here is failure to communicate". But Millennials and Gen Z are the new majority of voters, and many of them can still be reached. Somehow they need to stop disapproving of Biden enough and stop blaming him for gas prices enough to get out and vote Democratic in November. That will be the most important decision any of us can ever make in the near or far future.
I'm actually well, overall, so it's not the 2020s that worry me. The entire world, but the US first and foremost, seems bent on pulling this off at the last possible minute. The Chinese are no paragons of virtue, but they are moving pretty fast in the area of renewables and electric vehicles -- much faster than we are, but the Indians aren't even started (and they will grow their economy first, just like China). The Europeans are a mixed bag. Africa and South AMerica aren't even in the game yet. As far as the US is concerned, if the GOP continues to say no to everything we need to do (unless they benefit personally, of course) then this is not getting done in the '20s, probably not in the '30s and the '40s aren't soon enough.
Eric Wrote:And if you can get behind renewables, and not just nuclear, as the fix to the climate crisis, that would be a big step, and a lot you can do. I'll make a deal with you, fellow Boomer Gray Champion. I'll be open and up to date about nuclear if you are open and up to date about renewables. Be sure to read the article on batteries I posted.
I'm onboard with renewables 100%. I'm even onboard with battery backup systems, to the extent they can help. The primary failure is on the consumption side. For example, we permit, even incentivize, the ownership of pickup trucks as auto-substitutes. Why? When gas prices go up, and they should go up to incentivize the changeover to electric or hybrid at the very least, the public screams that they can't afford to drive these things they shouldn't be driving in the first place. We are a nation of whiners, and whiners never volunteer to suffer in the least in any way at any time. We allow waste to keep them happy -- and I'm not immune myself. We all have our blind spots.
So let's admit it. The politics of aggrandizement isn't going to end soon. It will take a shock to get the attention of all but the already committed, and I don't see one in the offing.
Intelligence is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom, but they all play well together.
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(02-22-2022, 11:37 AM)David Horn Wrote: (02-21-2022, 08:32 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: (02-21-2022, 03:43 PM)David Horn Wrote: (02-21-2022, 02:00 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: New research warns that the earth may be approaching key tipping points, including the runaway loss of ice sheets, that could fundamentally disrupt the global climate system. A growing concern is a change in ocean circulation, which could alter climate patterns in a profound way.
Much like the COVID deniers who wanted the vaccine on their deathbeds, climate deniers assume the fix can happen much later when it is not inconvenient to them. This is really bad for Xers and suicide for Millennials and younger gens. If it stays that way, this will not get fixed before catastrophe happens. Meanwhile, I'll be ashes in the urn on the mantle. Sorry, I simply can't be there to help.
You'll be here for the remainder of the 4T, at least, probably. I don't know your health conditions but you seem alive and kicking to me. That's long enough at least to keep trying to fix climate-breakdown denial. It will be fixed in the 2020s, or not fixed. Boomers and Silents and many Xers who continue to deny may not be reachable. As the Captain in Cool Hand Luke says, "some men you just can't reach" "what we've got here is failure to communicate". But Millennials and Gen Z are the new majority of voters, and many of them can still be reached. Somehow they need to stop disapproving of Biden enough and stop blaming him for gas prices enough to get out and vote Democratic in November. That will be the most important decision any of us can ever make in the near or far future.
I'm actually well, overall, so it's not the 2020s that worry me. The entire world, but the US first and foremost, seems bent on pulling this off at the last possible minute. The Chinese are no paragons of virtue, but they are moving pretty fast in the area of renewables and electric vehicles -- much faster than we are, but the Indians aren't even started (and they will grow their economy first, just like China). The Europeans are a mixed bag. Africa and South AMerica aren't even in the game yet. As far as the US is concerned, if the GOP continues to say no to everything we need to do (unless they benefit personally, of course) then this is not getting done in the '20s, probably not in the '30s and the '40s aren't soon enough.
Eric Wrote:And if you can get behind renewables, and not just nuclear, as the fix to the climate crisis, that would be a big step, and a lot you can do. I'll make a deal with you, fellow Boomer Gray Champion. I'll be open and up to date about nuclear if you are open and up to date about renewables. Be sure to read the article on batteries I posted.
I'm onboard with renewables 100%. I'm even onboard with battery backup systems, to the extent they can help. The primary failure is on the consumption side. For example, we permit, even incentivize, the ownership of pickup trucks as auto-substitutes. Why? When gas prices go up, and they should go up to incentivize the changeover to electric or hybrid at the very least, the public screams that they can't afford to drive these things they shouldn't be driving in the first place. We are a nation of whiners, and whiners never volunteer to suffer in the least in any way at any time. We allow waste to keep them happy -- and I'm not immune myself. We all have our blind spots.
So let's admit it. The politics of aggrandizement isn't going to end soon. It will take a shock to get the attention of all but the already committed, and I don't see one in the offing.
I agree. I don't know what it takes. Sad icon 
Now Putin has us all focused on stopping him. Russia is another gross violator. Putin seems not to realize that grabbing Ukraine and all its resources is not going to matter if the entire Earth goes into hothouse. His priority is all wrong. We certainly should boycott and sanction all his oil and gas production.
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GM to eliminate gas-burning vehicles by 2035
By Irina Ivanova
Updated on: January 28, 2021 / 2:14 PM / MoneyWatch
General Motors will stop producing vehicles that run on gasoline or diesel fuel over the next 14 years, replacing the fleet with all-electric cars, SUVs and light trucks, CEO Mary Barra announced Thursday.
Barra also promised the company would be net carbon-neutral by 2040, reducing the greenhouse gas pollution it produces and purchasing carbon offsets to make up for existing emissions.
The announcement, made on LinkedIn, puts a timeline onto GM's previously stated commitment to electric vehicles. Barra has often stated that the company was "all in" on an electric future.
GM to eliminate gas-burning vehicles by 2035
By Irina Ivanova
Updated on: January 28, 2021 / 2:14 PM / MoneyWatch
General Motors will stop producing vehicles that run on gasoline or diesel fuel over the next 14 years, replacing the fleet with all-electric cars, SUVs and light trucks, CEO Mary Barra announced Thursday.
Barra also promised the company would be net carbon-neutral by 2040, reducing the greenhouse gas pollution it produces and purchasing carbon offsets to make up for existing emissions.
The announcement, made on LinkedIn, puts a timeline onto GM's previously stated commitment to electric vehicles. Barra has often stated that the company was "all in" on an electric future.
"For General Motors, our most significant carbon impact comes from tailpipe emissions of the vehicles that we sell – in our case, it's 75 percent. That is why it is so important that we accelerate toward a future in which every vehicle we sell is a zero-emissions vehicle," Barra [url=https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/general-motors-intends-lead-auto-industry-world-future-mary-barra/?trackingId=u2FO4JlpQDKeFvKJ8h4kuA%3D%3D]wrote.
The announcement does not apply to heavy-duty vehicles, such as commercial trucks. But it marks a radical shift for the U.S.' largest automaker. GM, which makes Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC vehicles, had previously sided with the Trump administration in its attempt to stop California from setting its own emissions standards. GM dropped out of that lawsuit last November, and encouraged other automakers to follow suit.
Gasoline- or diesel-burning vehicles today make up 98% of GM's sales and all of its profit, the Wall Street Journal reported.
As part of the pivot, the company will offer 30 electric vehicle models for sale by 2025, and will spend $27 billion on what's called the EV market over the next four to five years, Wedbush analysts wrote in a note, adding that GM's announcement could set off an "arms race" for clean cars.
"With the Biden Green Agenda on the horizon, we believe other automakers could follow GM's lead domestically with Tesla continuing to run away with market share in this EV arms race," the analysts wrote.
GM's stock jumped 4% following the announcement. Tesla shares fell about 2.7% for the day.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/general-mot...cles-2035/
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
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