Carbon emission reduction: News and technology

[pErvinalia]

Drill baby drill!

[Brian Peacock]

How are those technological fixes coming along guys?

Hottest January on record mystifies climate scientists

A run of record-breaking global temperatures has continued, even with a La Niña weather pattern cooling the tropical Pacific.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service said last month was the warmest January on record, with surface – air temperatures 1.75C above preindustrial levels.

The EU-funded Earth observation programme highlighted wetter-than-average conditions in eastern Australia and drier-than-average conditions in other parts of the country.

Samantha Burgess, the strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, said: “January 2025 is another surprising month, continuing the record temperatures observed throughout the last two years … Copernicus will continue to closely monitor ocean temperatures and their influence on our evolving climate throughout 2025.” Sea-surface temperatures remained unusually high in many ocean basins and seas....

[JimC]

We have to do many things, and technological fixes are a part of it...

[pErvinalia]

Brian's worst nightmare - technological fixes solves the crisis thereby allowing business as usual.

[Brian Peacock]

It's not a nightmare -- I'm not anti-tech or against people having good, full, rich, comfortable lives -- it's a challenge. If tech-fixes can provide that kind of life, then what tech-fixes are we talking about, and how will they be instantiated, and when will that happen, and who will get to live the good life and who won't?

At the moment we're pulling on levers that don't exist and letting the ones that we have to hand, and could work, get rusty from neglect.

[macdoc]

letting the ones that we have to hand, and could work, get rusty from neglect.

such as ?
Big claim...... any support for it?

[Brian Peacock]

letting the ones that we have to hand, and could work, get rusty from neglect.

such as ?
Big claim...... any support for it?

I've answered that many times - in varying amounts of detail - you just haven't been paying attention. Perhaps you skip those bits because they upset your idea of getting to future-tech-heaven?

Nevertheless, your insipid challenge insinuates that there aren't any levers beyond the technological, perhaps even beyond the future-tech-osphere. It also conveniently shifts the burden away from "what tech-fixes are we talking about, and how will they be instantiated, and when will that happen, and who will get to live the good life and who won't?"

So if, as you imply, there are no levers to hand right now, and with future-tech-fixes either falling short or just not likely to exist, then what's your solution? Leave it to 'the market'?

[macdoc]

Don't try and turn it around ...you have never shown a viable solution - just complaints about the status quo and hand wringing.
Now you dodge a simple "such as" question.

letting the ones that we have to hand, and could work, get rusty from neglect.

what do we have "on hand" that could work and being neglected?

even
what do we have "on hand" that could work?

[Brian Peacock]

Don't try and turn it around ...you have never shown a viable solution - just complaints about the status quo and hand wringing.
Now you dodge a simple "such as" question.

letting the ones that we have to hand, and could work, get rusty from neglect.

what do we have "on hand" that could work and being neglected?

even
what do we have "on hand" that could work?

These are just some of the results with 'solution' in them. There's a lot more discussion around the posts...

• http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 3#p1902983
• http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 3#p1947213 **
• http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 1#p1947241
• http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 1#p1947891
• http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 3#p1953523 *
• http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 9#p1953719
• http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 2#p1953742
• http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 0#p1953820
• http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 6#p1961196

*

...
As I've also mentioned previously, a rapid decarbonisation of the global economy is the only way to secure the social, political and economic stability needed in order to successfully develop and implement the required sustainable technologies at the required scale. And as I've said many times before, systematic inaction from governments demands that the democratic pressure applied to policy-makers needs to be rapidly scaled up to meet the challenges we face now and into the short- to mid-term future - and this will happen only when the general public are more fully informed about the nature and scale of the issues, and the consequences thereof.

The fact that I've mentioned these kinds of things several times already, and yet you still feel compelled to challenge me with personally providing 'the solution', demonstrates you haven't really been paying attention. That you seem to favour personal slights rather than engaging with me on these issues in good faith also suggests that you just don't like having your assumptions challenged. So let me be unambiguous: it's not technology that will provide the solutions to the climate and ecological emergencies that we need today, and for the next generation and beyond, but pro-social political and economic reform...

**

...
Nonetheless, my solutions range from individuals trying to live as carbon light as they can, to developing new approaches to infrastructure, to a refocusing of education systems around climate and sustainability across disciplines (even the arts and humanities), to securing human rights and particular the rights of women and children, to the democratisation of natural resources as a truly common good, to developing community-based approaches to local climate and sustainability issues as they play out on the ground, to reassessing our species relationship to the natural environment and our evolved place in it, to a serious examination of the concept of value and how it is disproportionately accrued and hoarded by a few to the detriment of everyone, to addressing Climate Change as primarily a justice issue rather than a technocratic puzzle, to governments implementing the rapid changes in the global economy they've already committed to as part of the Paris Agreement but have done very little to honour, and much more besides.

But you could sum it up in a slogan...



I think the reason you so often get annoyed with me on these issues is simply because I actually take this shit very seriously, and yet I'm still surprised that any of that would be news to you - unless you haven't really been paying attention! We can talk about any of it whenever you like - but you'll have to drop certain assumptions you have about 'my stance' in order for those discussions to be productive.

You don't get to play the "so what's your solution?" card again I'm afraid macdoc.

Let's get back on track...

So if, as you imply, there are no levers to hand right now, and with future-tech-fixes either falling short or just not likely to exist, then what's your solution? Leave it to 'the market'?

[Brian Peacock]

So mac, shall we reset the tenor of our interactions and try for a clean-break fresh-start?

Do you have any questions about any of the above, or would you like to discuss a particular subject or aspect of the issue in more detail?

[pErvinalia]

Commie

[Brian Peacock]

Shut up trailerboy

[macdoc]

Now now kiddies no

[Brian Peacock]

EVs and datacentres driving new global ‘age of electricity’, says watchdog

Forecast for rising global electricity use likely to stoke fears of rising costs and stalled efforts to fight climate crisis

The world’s electricity use will grow every year by more than the amount consumed annually by Japan because of a surge in electric transport, air conditioning and datacentres, according to the world’s energy watchdog.

The International Energy Agency has raised its predictions for the world’s rising demand for electricity, pegging the growth at almost 4% a year until 2027, up from its previous forecast of 3.4% year.

The influential Paris-based agency said the “new age of electricity” was dawning as a result of the climate crisis as more people begin to use air conditioning to cope with extreme temperature rises and economies begin to turn away from using fossil fuels in favour of cleaner power.

More governments are taking steps to rely on electricity for transport and heating systems as well as heavy industry, according to the report, and there is also expected to be a rapid expansion of energy-hungry datacentres used to train artificial intelligence (AI).

The forecasts are likely to stoke fears that the race to build more datacentres to support the boom in AI could become a drain on energy supplies, causing costs to rocket and stalling efforts to cut fossil fuels from power generation.

The race to consume more electricity will be led by China, where demand grew by 7% last year, and could grow by 6% a year over the next three years, in part due to a boom in its manufacturing of solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles.

Rising demand in the US is expected to add the equivalent of California’s current power consumption to the national total by 2027. In the European Union, growth is forecast to be more modest, returning to its 2021 levels by 2027, after a crash in demand over recent years triggered by surging costs during the energy crisis.

Keisuke Sadamori, a director at the IEA, said: “The acceleration of global electricity demand highlights the significant changes taking place in energy systems around the world and the approach of a new age of electricity. But it also presents evolving challenges for governments in ensuring a secure, affordable and sustainable electricity supply.”..

[macdoc]

Bitcoin and to a lesser degree Ai are stupid drains on the electricity supply.
Still the growth in nuclear and renewables in China and to a less degree the rest of the planet is for the moment outpacing the bitcoin crap. At least Ai has tangible benefit to the wider world.
It's not getting cooler globally.