Meanwhile, on planet earth...

[Res Ipsa]

As a companion to what Chap posted, here is an article by Bill McKibben on his Substack:

https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/fri ... &nthPub=41

The cost of insurance is likely the first way that Americans will experience the costs of climate change. It will move the impacts of climate change from theoretical to real.

[Dr. Shades]

So, I guess "Substack" is the new "Blogspot?"

[Res Ipsa]

So, I guess "Substack" is the new "Blogspot?"

It's where folks who use to post substantive pieces on Twitter have gone to write long form articles. They offer free content and additional content for a paid subscription. I don't know if Blogspot had a mechanism for monetizing blogs. Substack does, and so attracts some heavy hitters.

[Gunnar]

The climate is becoming more bizarre and more threatening.

NOPE NOT HAPPENING

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY-HOYTz-rs

Yep! The climate change deniers are very nearly that stupid!

[Gunnar]

More positive views are available, to help avoid the notion that there is nothing out there but the binary choice between:

(a) Climate collapse is a hoax and is not happening. So do nothing.

(b) Climate collapse is real and is happening now at an accelerating pace, and it is too hard to stop it now. So do nothing.

‘Cheaper to save the world than destroy it’: why capitalism is going green
Akshat Rathi argues that around the world economies are switching to clean technology as prices drop

Thanks for linking to that article. It should be blazingly obvious by now to any even moderately well-informed person that the cost of failure to save the world is going to grow much faster than the cost of converting to green energy the longer we delay.

A bit of encouraging news: Tesla battery system officially replaces state’s last remaining coal power plant: ‘This is a landmark milestone’

The Aloha State is saying goodbye to polluting power and hello to an opportunity for its sunny skies to provide more than ripe pineapples and golden tans.

As reported by Electrek, a Tesla Megapack battery system replacing Hawai’i’s very last coal power plant is officially live.

Hawai’i has the highest solar capacity deployed per capita. But the sun doesn’t shine 24/7, so it still needs energy storage. The state also intends to run off 100% green energy by 2045, per Electrek. Projects like this battery system will help both areas.

The project — called Kapolei Energy Storage — is owned and operated by Plus Power and located on the west side of Oahu, in a known industrial area.

The company claims it’s “the most advanced grid-scale battery energy storage system in the world.”
Specifications include 135 megawatt (MW) / 540 megawatt-hours (MWh) of capacity and energy; 50 MW/25 MWh of additional “fast frequency response” to help maintain the stability of the electric grid stable; “‘virtual inertia’ to replicate the power-smoothing function of a spinning turbine;” and “‘black start’ capabilities, which will support grid recovery in the event of a blackout.”

I hope they can beat that 2045 target date, though.

Per the press release, modeling done by Hawaiian Electric found that the plant will allow the utility to reduce curtailment of renewable energy by 69% and integrate 10% more new utility-scale renewables in its first five years while also providing for the continued growth of personal rooftop solar.

While the system directly benefits Hawaiians, the transition from dirty energy sources like coal to clean sources like solar and wind benefits us all. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, when pollution from electricity use is allocated to the industrial sector, industrial activities account for 30% of planet-warming pollution in the United States.

As coal plants close across the country, many are being repurposed into clean energy sites.

The more inexpensive and readily available these energy sources are, the more likely homeowners will add solar panels or other greener upgrades.

ETA: Why would any reasonable, scientifically literate and honest person whose main source of income is NOT derived from the fossil fuel industry or other businesses that despoil and pollute our environment have any objection to the above?

[huckelberry]

Thinking of msnobodies comment, I think it is possible to take some comfort in God's oversite and power and still realize one has to take responsibility for care of the world, your community, friends, and neighbors.

But solving climate change is more easily said than done. Change to electricity? A large majority of electric power comes from burning various carbon sources. A law can be passed saying "use other sources" but reality can be a problem as well as conflicts of interest. In Washington, hydroelectric power has been important but people do not wish to increase that. In fact, there is a continuing effort to eliminate dams on the Snake river to protect salmon in Idaho. It is always said there are other ways to get the electric power the dams provide (burning carbon unless people are willing to return to more nuclear power).

Article heads with a picture of one of the the electric sources in conflict:

https://www.capitalpress.com/climate_ch ... c43c5.html

The transition is not simple -- we waited way too long for any simple solution to exist. In the case of the Snake River dams, it sounds like the plans to breach them take into account the loss of hydropower that would result.

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/ ... wer-produ/

The problem with nuclear power is not the willingness of people to use them. The problem is economics. The nuclear power industry has been unable to deliver new plants on time and on budget for decades. It consistently underestimates the price of electricity that will have to be charged to pay for the plants. My utility finished paying its share of nuclear plants that never got built in the 1970s in the last few years. Private markets won't touch them. And that doesn't address the fact that the U.S. has never been able to develop a site to dispose of the waste.

Unfortunately, it seems that nuclear power works best in countries that aren't scared to death of socialism. It takes government mandating a uniform design, at a minimum.

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/11/06/nu ... ompatible/

Res Ipsa, thanks for pointing these out. There are layers of problems with nuclear energy. Hanford is cleaning up and appears not to be reaching an end. I live in the general neighborhood of both Hanford and those Snake River dams. Well there is close to nobody living real close to those dams on the snake. I thought the article you linked was interesting:

And, while it’s tempting to look for clear-cut answers, when the facts run out, it becomes a question of choices and values. How much are decimated salmon populations worth? Buried native lands? Cheap wheat shipping prices? What about within in the context of global warming and the necessity of a carbon-reduced future?

“The big picture is very complex,” Bose said. “I don’t blame people for trying to make things simple.”

I find myself struggling with the elements of virtue signaling in the problem. Buried Indian land? How is that portion of the Snake River canyon bottom more Indian land than the rest of the state not inhabited by Indians? Yes when Lewis & Clark came through there was an Indian village where the Palouse river enters the Snake. People long gone well before the dams were built.

I am not against Idaho salmon but I do find myself wondering how Sockeyes in the Salmon river are a special species. There are Sockeye Salmon in a number of other places. I do not have fishing experience on the Salmon river but have fished Imnaha river many times. It flows into the Snake well above those dams. It has had salmon come in August any time I have been there then. I got chased out of the river one time by a large territorial minded Chinook salmon.

There have been times in my life when I thought breaching those dams was a good idea. I have not been able to think that in recent years.