This is so depressing because it was not anticipated. After "THE PAUSE!!" was revealed as a statistically insignificant it seemed denial had moved on to the new Alamo - essentially pretend that nothing can be done, its all too expensive, science will save us, and that Obama's Paris deal was "the wrong approach". But actually they might be prepared to go much further than that. It matches my own experience in the Fossil industry. The progressive approach, focussed on CCS and Carbon Prices was gutted, in favour of milking every last $ from the dying cash cow In my opinion, Coal knows its a dying industry. The thing is many of the key guys are old and they had their time and made their money. So now they just bury their heads in the sand and fight to the death over every yard of ground
I know, right? Wish I could shame all the gun-nut posters on this forum, but they'll never admit they got played by the NRA and the industry.
Depressing, because the "pause" was completely contrived. No honest statistician would ever come to that conclusion, and it only was "disproved" when their own blatant mathematic "contortions" (that's giving it too much credit) could not accommodate the newer data. Perfect. Sounds like business as usual. see: Robert Murray. One of the worst human beings on the planet. Even my Bundy-supporting friend that worked in his mine in Helper, UT had nothing good to say about him.
So how much Carbon have we really saved with all those Solar panels? Obviously it is getting much better, so 2 years of carbon savings to payoff the carbon debt to build them is pretty good, depending on the lifetime of the panels. http://www.economist.com/news/scien...w-paper-may-have-answer-how-clean-solar-power
Life time? Im not an expert on the ingridients of an average solar panel but Id say they are to some higher degree recyclable so that in the future you can use them for producing better, more efficient ones. That should reduce the footprint too.
It does seem strange that we have to go through the calculations to figure out what makes the most sense. I don't mean to the coal fanboys... the're pretty much a lost cause anyway... I mean the green lobby. Unfortunately there are too many people that like things because they feel it should be right, even if it's not.
There is a similar calculation regarding hybrids/electric cars. They are without a doubt more efficient and cost-effective than gas vehicles -- but there is still a carbon cost related to producing the electricity required to charge them (on average 30kWh per 100 miles) -- but compared to burning gasoline, it's a no-brainer.
There's a vast range of factors including the energy cost of creating the batteries in the first place. I considered purchasing a Toyota hybrid car but, as I only do about 3-4,000 miles a year it seemed a bit silly. The alternative would have been a diesel but then it turns out they're a lot more 'dirty' than we all thought so that's part of the calculation. Also, they require more servicing if they don't do reasonable mileage so, again, that's a non-starter. I ended up buying a 'normal' petrol vehicle.
Disposing of the batteries at some point also comes with an environmental cost, people should know there are a lot of "anti-green" attributes of hybrids/EVs, although I still think they are the future of automobiles.
Heavens to Betsy....most likely not. Then again we weren't going to let your side of the pond get all the positive news cycles due to Brexit. We've bested you again!
‘Rolling Coal’ in Diesel Trucks, to Rebel and Provoke There is a new menace on America’s roads: diesel truck drivers who soup up their engines and remove their emissions controls to “roll coal,” or belch black smoke, at pedestrians, cyclists and unsuspecting Prius drivers Depending on whom you ask, rolling coal is a juvenile prank, a health hazard, a stand against rampant environmentalism, a brazen show of American freedom . Coal rollers’ frequent targets: walkers, joggers, cyclists, hybrid and Asian cars and even police officers. A popular bumper sticker reads “Prius Repellent.”
@The Jitty Slitter Phil Plait wrote up a nice piece in Slate about the "faux-pause" in warming. Basically, data collection methods were inconsistent. Applying re-calibration to the data to account for sampling error, they found no pause at all, and warming has been consistent right on through the 1998, before and after.
Yeah...much ado about nothing. Kinda like Adu! The crack in this Antarctic ice shelf just grew by 11 miles. A dramatic break could be imminent. Washington Post - 6 hours ago This story has been updated. An enormous rift in one of Antarctica's largest ice shelves grew dramatically over the past month, and a chunk nearly the size of Delaware could break away as soon as later this winter, British scientists reported this week.
I follow him and read his Bad Astronomer blog a lot, he's very good at Science communication. Also very good at taking climate-change deniers to task, especially those in government who hate all thngs science but serve in powerful positions on Science committees somehow.
From the sources I could find it has shrinked compared to last year's 42.1%. So yes less but not very much
Well that is good, I know when they gave up nuclear their carbon heavy foot print actually went up, but that was temporarily. As long as Germany can decrease the reliance on dirty sources of energy, then it is a good thing. We still get a lot of energy from carbon unfortunately (more if Trump lobbies in favor of the coal industry/unions). Natural gas is helping reduce our demand for coal.