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Green New Deal

I often hear from liberals that climate change is an immediately solvable problem, that with modest changes to our live-styles and much higher taxes on the rich, we can address the problem and have a better society for all. It’s a very hopeful message, but also a very unscientific and frankly quite naive message to boot.

If addressing climate change in the serious fashion needed to address the worse impacts on it was an easy, inexpensive to thing to do, it would have been done a long time ago. If we could just immediately switch over to cheaper, more reliable battery electric cars, and meet all our needs by a few solar panels, we’d do it now.

But the truth is switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy is much more technically challenging, and will require changes to our own lifestyles, and maybe a reduction to the human population through an expanded death penalty. It’s going to be amazingly expensive, and difficult on economy. But ignoring the problem is likely to be more expensive.

Most of that technology is getting better, thanks in a big part about government research and incentives that are pushing the market that way. But solutions aren’t cheap, nor easy, or without requiring often significant lifestyle changes. There needs to be an adult conversation, not memes and blaming the other political party for all our woes.

This is why I’ve really had little interest in Green New Deal, because I don’t think it’s serious or workable deal. Maybe it’s a message bill that will eventually get more flush on it’s bones and enacted, but as it is it won’t do much for serious problems we face today.

Blue Mountain Lake

Climate Change.

ο»ΏOne of the problems I think there is with climate change, is it’s discussion has become fraught with self-evident truth. The assumption is that if you believe in the science of climate change, that it’s self-evident that you must believe in radical action to address it. You can’t be numb to human suffering after all, can you? Maybe so.

I am a believer in science, but at the same time, I’m a practical person. Infrastructure take decades to evolve, and while we should do more to reduce the carbon intensity of our society, and ultimately work towards the goal of reducing emissions, I don’t think the necessary reductions to fully limit the worse impacts of climate change is even realistic. Instead of planning to do what we can do to limit the worse impacts of climate change, we should look more broadly at what we can do to reduce the harm more broadly both by reductions in emissions and adapting our infrastructure.

Many of the impacts of climate change are well studied. When we are upgrading or repairing damaged infrastructure we most certainly should look at the science and work to minimize future harm. We obviously should not be building new large coal plants, and building new renewable generation were ecologically appropriate. We should continue to improve the efficiency on new automobiles and appliances, and work to expand the electric automobile and transit fleet where practical.

Earth

Society needs a measured approach – not ignorance but also realistic goals and plans that can be adopted as we upgrade and continue to modernize our infrastructure.

Plants release up to 30 per cent more CO2 than previously thought, study says

Plants release up to 30 per cent more CO2 than previously thought, study says

"During daylight hours, plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen through photosynthesis, and at night only about half that carbon is then released through respiration. However, plants still remain a net carbon sink, meaning they absorb more than they emit.

"Currently, around 25 per cent of carbon emissions from the use of fossil fuels is being taken up and stored by plants, which is good, as it helps reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere," ANU researcher Owen Atkin said. "Our work suggests that this positive contribution of plants may decline in the future as they begin to respire more as the world warms."

Saving Power Now.

One of the surprises this month, was to discover that my home energy report says I’ve used less power then a year ago.πŸ”Œ Certainly some of it was due to being out of town for work for two months, but I think that only is part of the story — as there a drop in consumption year around.

Being a renter, there really isn’t all that much I can do to control my power use although I don’t have a lot of electronics, tend to keep the heat turned down and the refrigerator turned up except in the summer. πŸ§€I try to use the microwave and waffle iron instead of the oven and stove top as much as possible.🍲 Lights and computers are relatively small part of the load — although I really don’t have much in the way of electronics compared to a “modern” household.πŸ’»

Doing what I can, based on my limited control to save energy, helps save a bit of money, but it also saves resources and prepares me more for times spent off-the-grid, whether it being camping or my future home.πŸ’° If I can live with less power now, I can live with less power in the future.

Smart Meters

I wonder how long before electric companies start billing consumers for apparent power rather then real power using smart meters in New York.

I predict that will be a political shit-show πŸ’© when some people’s bills go up dramatically, especially those people that have a lot of devices with capacitive droppers or run big electric motors like laundry machines with shitty power factors. ✊ But maybe it will encourage better, more energy efficient appliances. ♻️

The moral of the story, is that people don’t like it when they “get free stuff by stealing from other people and then guberment takes their free electricity away.” πŸ”Œ

Power Lines