this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2024
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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.

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Yes, heat pumps slash emissions even if powered by a dirty grid | Installing a heat pump now is better for the climate, even on U.S. electricity generated mostly by fossil fuels. Here’s why (www.canarymedia.com)
submitted 8 months ago by silence7@slrpnk.net to c/climate@slrpnk.net
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The article doesn't go into it, but a key advantage they have is that heat pumps move heat, rather then trying to generate it. So they can move a lot more heat into your house than would be generated by running the electricity they use through a resistor. This makes them effectively more than 100% efficient (the exact amount depends on temperature) as compared with burning a fuel or resistive heat.

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[–] admiralteal@kbin.social 27 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Increasingly, they also tend to have variable-speed compressors, which offer further efficiency benefits. I think the distinction between A/C and heat pump is useful for consumers.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 16 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Just got a Bosch Inverter (variable speed) last summer, and the remainder of the summer and through the winter, my electric usage is down by about 30% over last year's even though I lowered the thermostat temp in summer and increased it in winter.

Old system was 20 years old. I was hoping to see some ROI after this surprise expense, and it has exceeded expectation so far.

[–] HaywardT@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

You could add end-of-life solar panels and an automatic transfer switch and save a lot more.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If only! I have a condo in an HOA neighborhood, so no outdoor goodies.

[–] HaywardT@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 8 months ago

Get on the board and make everyone do it.