Climate Change and Renewable Energy News and Discussion

Overbom

Brigadier
Registered Member
Was surprised to not see a thread about this. Let's talk climate change, natural disasters, and how they may affect future policy.
Well first of all, zero climate cooperation should be done with the US.

In addition, I would say that the aggressive greening policies of shutting down coal mines and quickly closing off coal plants have slightly backfired, which is why you see now an urgent emergency expansion of coal mining


As for climate change effects, China is in significant danger due to its major population centres being near the sea

Check the graphic below by CGTN. Please take into account that we will probably exceed the 2 C warming
691adddaac5948f1bde96dd0c45ef5ed.jpg
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FairAndUnbiased

Brigadier
Registered Member
Well first of all, zero climate cooperation should be done with the US.

In addition, I would say that the aggressive greening policies of shutting down coal mines and quickly closing off coal plants have slightly backfired, which is why you see now an urgent emergency expansion of coal mining


As for climate change effects, China is in significant danger due to its major population centres being near the sea

Check the graphic below by CGTN. Please take into account that we will probably exceed the 2 C warming
View attachment 78539
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If it comes down to it, a massive seawall and land infill will be required.

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However, since Shanghai is 3-5 m above sea level already, at current rates of rise (~3 mm per year) it is not so urgent.

US projections are for 2.5 m rise by 2100 which is still OK.

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OppositeDay

Senior Member
Registered Member
Well first of all, zero climate cooperation should be done with the US.

In addition, I would say that the aggressive greening policies of shutting down coal mines and quickly closing off coal plants have slightly backfired, which is why you see now an urgent emergency expansion of coal mining


As for climate change effects, China is in significant danger due to its major population centres being near the sea

Check the graphic below by CGTN. Please take into account that we will probably exceed the 2 C warming
View attachment 78539
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Where is Venice or am I missing something?
 

NiuBiDaRen

Brigadier
Registered Member
@siegecrossbow could we rename this to Renewable Energy, Net Zero Technologies and Climate Change in China & Beyond? If so it will generate more interest and relevance. The current title name is very tired.

There's a lot to talk about from hydrogen to lithium batteries and small nuclear modular reactors SMRs as well as LNG FSRUs.

COP26 is coming up, by the way.
 

9dashline

Senior Member
Registered Member
@siegecrossbow could we rename this to Renewable Energy, Net Zero Technologies and Climate Change in China & Beyond? If so it will generate more interest and relevance. The current title name is very tired.

There's a lot to talk about from hydrogen to lithium batteries and small nuclear modular reactors SMRs as well as FSRUs.


It isn't so much that there are no alternatives, it's that there are no replacements.

Economists divide the economy into sectors; primary, secondary and so on. The primary sector is that which extracts basic raw materials, and there is none more basic than fossil energy. Oil is the master resource, conventional was basically too cheap to meter. One can tiptoe around the fact but it remains.

Scavenging the waste stream of fossil fueled agriculture as in TDP, methane digestion, etc is part of the secondary industrial sector—and if there is a "secondary" secondary, recycling would be that. As are all such processes to create synthetic liquid fuel, they rely on a cheap energy primary stream and the built infrastructure of waste enabled by decades of that same cheap fossil fuel.

That we have a waste stream at all is due to fossils. You can't lose step one and expect step three to continue apace.

Even the non-conventional, energy intensive sources of fossil fuel that are highly mechanized don't really belong in a primary category, CTL, tar-sand flushing, SAGD, and LTO are more akin to manufacturing. I don't know what the dividing line is, it's the old question of drawing EROEI boundaries I suppose. But at some point their need for vast quantities of actual raw materials; water, sand, steel, diesel, disposal space, etc will likely reveal their dependence on cheap primary energy.

The only real solution is to reduce use to the point we can meet our need with dispersed sources.


 

NiuBiDaRen

Brigadier
Registered Member
Look you sound like a doomsayer. Isn't this why people are talking about hydrogen fuel cells, ammonia fuel cells, and PV plus storage?

It seems like you've just raised the white flag before the battle's begun.

By the way, tar sand flushing - you're trying to solve climate change by literally digging deeper into unconventional oil sources??
 

9dashline

Senior Member
Registered Member
Look you sound like a doomsayer. Isn't this why people are talking about hydrogen fuel cells, ammonia fuel cells, and PV plus storage?

It seems like you've just raised the white flag before the battle's begun.

By the way, tar sand flushing - you're trying to solve climate change by going deeper into unconventional oil sources??
Fuels cells are NOT energy SOURCE, they are energy carrier.... Talking about capacitors and batteries do nothing to solve the global energy crunch, the fact that high EROEI and easy to get primary energy sources are quickly diminishing against a backdrop of ever-growing human population and increasing energy use per capita for the developing world...
 

NiuBiDaRen

Brigadier
Registered Member
Fuels cells are NOT energy SOURCE, they are energy carrier.... Talking about capacitors and batteries do nothing to solve the global energy crunch, the fact that high EROEI and easy to get primary energy sources are quickly diminishing against a backdrop of ever-growing human population and increasing energy use per capita for the developing world...
Sure. You have things like wind and solar. You use energy carriers to store captured energy.

Last week Harvard said solar will be at the same cost as coal in China in 2023. You use these energy carriers to store energy to solve the intermittency problem.

The sun sends enough solar energy in one hour to the Earth to power the global economy for one year. Right now it's about lowering solar's cost of production. You can use solar to conduct electrolysis to generate green hydrogen etc. It's just very expensive currently.
 
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