Climate Change/Mass Extinction Megathread

[Jacob]

Project drawdown: Table of solutions

A list of solutions to the climate crisis, with numbers.  You can order them to see which solution will remove the most CO2 from the atmosphere.

Oh this is interesting. Great find.

Interesting to see Reduced Food Waste and Plant-Rich Diets near the top in poth scenarios... but there are a lot of interesting things with potentially significant impacts: Silvopasture, Clean Cooking, Methan Leak Management, Perennial Staple Crops, Insulation.

There are some that are interesting but I consider less likely to achieve: Rainforest Reforestation is a big one. Don't think Brazil and the relevant African countries are going to commit to it.

Some of them are fairly commonly discussed: Distributed Solar Photovoltaics, Utility-Scale Solar Voltaics, Onshore Wind Turbines, Alternate Refrigerants and the like.

[Jacob]

Project drawdown: Table of solutions

A list of solutions to the climate crisis, with numbers.  You can order them to see which solution will remove the most CO2 from the atmosphere.

Oh this is interesting. Great find.

Interesting to see Reduced Food Waste and Plant-Rich Diets near the top in poth scenarios... but there are a lot of interesting things with potentially significant impacts: Silvopasture, Clean Cooking, Methane Leak Management, Perennial Staple Crops, Insulation.

There are some that are interesting but I consider less likely to achieve: Rainforest Reforestation is a big one. Don't think Brazil and the relevant African countries are going to commit to it.

Some of them are fairly commonly discussed: Distributed Solar Photovoltaics, Utility-Scale Solar Voltaics, Onshore Wind Turbines, Alternate Refrigerants and the like.

[viper37]

I think it's best left alone beyond: helping countries develop, educating girls and women and providing general support for (voluntary, non-quotaed) family planning measures - or just provide less intrusive forms like condoms.

Yes, once girls and women get education and access to contraceptive measures, the rest just folllows by itself.

[Josquius]

Well I've just had an automated telephone flood warning/alert for here:

Flood alert for Lower Avon and tributaries.

Can't say I'm that bothered, but unusually early for the season, helps that we've the best part of a million quids worth of active flood defences for only 10 properties.

Meanwhile in the north...

[Syt]

September 2023 is the warmest September in Austria ever recorded, breaking a record from 1810.

So far, September had 22 days in Vienna of 25°C or more ("normal" average is 5). Today's forecast is 28°C, and the weather will likely continue into October. I assume I will be wearing shorts/t-shirt on my birthday next month (happened only once so far, and that was just a temperature spike between "normal" tempereatures a few years ago, not continued weather like this). Actually, September temperatures at the moment feels how July used to feel.

[mongers]

September 2023 is the warmest September in Austria ever recorded, breaking a record from 1810.

So far, September had 22 days in Vienna of 25°C or more ("normal" average is 5). Today's forecast is 28°C, and the weather will likely continue into October. I assume I will be wearing shorts/t-shirt on my birthday next month (happened only once so far, and that was just a temperature spike between "normal" tempereatures a few years ago, not continued weather like this). Actually, September temperatures at the moment feels how July used to feel.

Uncharted waters, we're all at sea, up shit creek without a paddle, rudderless, etc.

[Duque de Bragança]

I see temperatures over 30°C for Bragança this week-end, late summer in autumn, not exactly new but then September was not *that* hot. Of course, 20°C less at night (small city) so it's perfectly livable.

Paris will get almost 30°C this week-end, but then autumn really started as per the official date.

The North-West of France got a somewhat cool and rainy summer but it's hardly typical.

https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2023/09/29/la-france-connait-son-mois-de-septembre-le-plus-chaud-depuis-le-debut-des-mesures-selon-meteo-france_6191557_3244.html

Le Monde says France got the hottest september ever recorded. 

[Josquius]

I know this is a disaster. Fucked up patterns for wildlife, crop yields affected, etc...

But I can't help but me most bothered by proper winters no longer being a thing

[mongers]

 

[Sheilbh]

I know I keep on banging on about this and it's a big issue in the UK - but also more widely. Global renewables expansion is incredible - we're currently expanding at the rate we need to meet our global targets (and the pace is only likely to increase).

But we need to massively expand grid capacity and I think this bit is being ignored, perhaps because it's less obviously important to reaching net zero. Basically we need to double the rate of investment into the grid to keep pace and to electrify everything else and move the, roughly, 80% of emissions that don't come from power generation away from hydrocarbons:

[Sheilbh]

On a similar theme of net zero actually being about building lots and lots of things, I thought this was interesting and shows why I think we need still more industrial strategy (and also the key success of solar, which basically means China):

[Admiral Yi]

When did heat pumps become a climate change darling?  Seems like just yesterday we were talking about Europe switching to heat pumps to get out from under the Rooskis.

[Sheilbh]

I think they always have been - there was talk about them and subsidies for installing them before the Russian invasion. Not burning gas to heat your house has the twin benefit of being good for climate change and doesn't rely on Russia (or the Middle East etc).

It takes time to pay off but gas is still very expensive in Europe - since the invasion we're past the spike but prices were only marginally higher in Europe than the US, they're now four times higher.

[Josquius]

I've heard so many bad stories about heat pumps. Lots of people with friends who got them and regret it.
I suspect a chunk of this is culture war bollocks and there is no such friend.
Though they certainly do seem to have their disadvantages. They take a huge amount of space inside and out.

[Tamas]

My parents have a fairly expensive A/C unit that is sort of also like a small heat pump in the sense that it can heat. And while its too small to heat the entire house (which is quite big), it is most excellent at heating the living room and adjacent areas at ridiculously good efficiency.