this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2023
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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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Electrify All the Big, Noisy, Belching Trucks (www.nytimes.com)
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] MightEnlightenYou 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm curious what you think the energy density needs to be for it to be viable and why? The way I see it energy density is a very minor factor for this equation but I'm curious to hear your explanation.

[–] Hildegarde 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Are there any long haul electric trucks currently in widespread use? No, there really aren't. Batteries are the reason. If it were economically viable we would see long haul electric trucks. Major truck manufactures make electric trucks. Kennworth and Peterbilt, the two biggest truck manufactures in the united states have electric truck models, and they are only their short haul models. Battery electric trucks are fine for delivery vans, and last mile delivery applications. But long haul trucks do not work with batteries. If these truck makers thought long haul trucks were viable they would make them. They have the technology to do battery trucks.

The technology to do zero emission long haul overland freight already exists. Governments should spend money on that instead of praying that batteries eventually become good enough to maintain the status quo.

[–] MightEnlightenYou 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I like trains and I'm not American. You brought up energy density as the factor preventing long haul. Please don't appeal to authority as the argument but rather state what you think the energy density needs to be and why to make electric long haul viable.

[–] Hildegarde 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The specific energy of batteries are currently an order of magnitude less than diesel. This is not a problem that is going to be solved by a slightly improved battery. The weight of batteries needed to carry long haul cargo makes it a non-starter.

[–] MightEnlightenYou 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This is also true for cars, but electric cars are viable even though its the same comparison between energy density. Would you be willing to have this conversation with actual calculations and specified arguments regarding the numbers?

[–] Hildegarde 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'll do the calculations if you pay my consultancy fee.

[–] MightEnlightenYou 2 points 10 months ago

How about we both do the calculations and we cancel each others consultant fees?