this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2024
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Climate - truthful information about climate, related activism and politics.

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Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.

As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades: Graph of temperature as observed with significant warming, and simulated without added greenhouse gases and other anthropogentic changes, which shows no significant warming

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world: IPCC AR6 Figure 2 - Thee bar charts: first chart: how much each gas has warmed the world. About 1C of total warming. Second chart: about 1.5C of total warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases, offset by 0.4C of cooling from aerosols and negligible influence from changes to solar output, volcanoes, and internal variability. Third chart: about 1.25C of warming from CO2, 0.5C from methane, and a bunch more in small quantities from other gases. About 0.5C of cooling with large error bars from SO2.

Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:

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Coal use to reach new peak – and remain at near-record levels for years | Spike in fossil fuel use a result of global gas crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (www.theguardian.com)
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[–] kalkulat@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

'Natural gas' is a fossil fuel. A lot better than coal, yes, and a lot of people still use it (well-tuned modern furnaces are 90% efficient). Unlike ICE engines with their 20-30% gasoline efficiency (buy 4 gallons, throw 3 into the wind).

In a sane world, all coal would be shut down NOW, all users would be shit-outta-luck. There are NO excuses for continued use.

[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

There are strong indications that natural gas isn't better than coal, particularly with respect to climate change. Methane, which is the primary component of natural gas, is 10 times more effective as a greenhouse gas than CO2 is. So it's better if we burn it, right? Well, not necessarily. There are a lot of leaks with natural gas distribution, and we have only recently started tracking them. Research papers about the amount of methane released through leaks, and satellites to accurately detect methane leaks from space really only started coming out this year, but the results don't look good.

The short answer is, if you believe in climate change, then there are no fossil fuels we can afford to keep using. Transitioning away from all of them as fast as possible is the only sensible approach.

[–] kalkulat@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I totally agree with that, in principle. But, in the US, NatGas has a huge amount invested in appliances and heating, so we need to be able to replace that with less costly electric and with a federal program to help people switch to heat pumps and training for installers.

[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago

I absolutely agree. Making life uncomfortable for people as we move away from fossil fuels is one thing, completely disrupting their lives or crippling them financially is another. This all would have been easier if America and elsewhere had seriously started transitioning 50 years ago, but that isn't an option now.