this post was submitted on 09 Feb 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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[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

So except in the 3 areas that matter most. Got it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I wouldn't describe them as "3 areas that matter most" — shipping and aviation are only part of transport

Note that this chart only runs through 2020

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Nice insight, thank you. I wonder if the electricity industry uses is under the industry umbrella or the electricity and heating umbrella. Separate entities of course, but I'd be interested in seeing how electricity consumption compares from industry to consumer sectors.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Not in this chart. I've seen national inventories which distribute electric sector emissions out to the consumers of it

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I like this graph from the article: Expected fossil fuel use

Wasn't it 2028 when the carbon budget for 1.5 °C runs out? And 2050 or so for 2 °C? Lol

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The dates on which budgets run out depend on the rate at which we continue to extract and burn fossil fuels.

Future projections depend enormously on policy. Change policy, and those curves change.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

You are correct with both points. I merely wanted to point out, how far we are from reaching the Paris Agreement.

1.5 may or not be a little later than 2028. The fossil consumption lines may or not be a little flatter.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

... each of which is its own massive chunk of the pie.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Maybe out in a limb here but, I think industry and aviation are two of the areas that should be able to use fossil fuels longer than others. Their energy expenditure is huge, yes, but the scientific advancement that is necessary to make them zero carbon are still quite a ways in the future.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

It depends on the industry. We know how to prevent the bulk of emissions from concrete and steel, which are the big ones. And yes, aviation might well end up needing to use direct air capture to remove their emissions

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Who decides the 'should be able to' - do sectors get 'grandfathering' rights? Maybe energy-inefficient sectors should decline to give more space for smarter solutions. Much aviation could be replaced by faster rail or shipping, which is much less energy intensive. Many (not all) industrial products also have substitutes. Much concrete and steel is used to make unnecessary roads which cover green spaces, and in the case of China, blocks that nobody even lives in. Many agri-chemicals are over-applied, leading to water pollution.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

What a surprise! - decades ago it was obvious these are toughest nuts to crack, which is why I avoided taking planes since 1990. Led me to discover many interesting places on the way, although became isolated from a society which treats jetting about as standard.
By the way, article a bit simple, agricultural sector also has challenges to reduce emissions.