this post was submitted on 30 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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Solar panel waste to reach crisis levels in next two to three years, Australian experts warn (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 8 months ago by Womble to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 57 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It's worth noting that the actual volumes of non-recyclable material left when we're done with solar panels are tiny compared with the huge ponds of toxic ash left by coal.

[–] Womble -3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Sure, I don't think anyone discussing energy production in good faith would claim that coal is anything other than the absolute worst. It's not exactly a huge achievement to say something is less bad than the most polluting method of energy generation in existence.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] Womble 0 points 8 months ago

Right, but that doesnt mean they're perfect and their flaws shouldnt be discussed, if for no other reason than to ensure it doesnt become a bigger problem in the future.

In addition to the waste problem the article also talks about the world supply of silver being exhausted in ~20 years if solar continues to expand at the expected 5-10x. That sounds like a problem, its probably fixable by shifting to new designs but it needs to be considered and work put into that in order to do so.