The Phantom Posted September 20, 2021 Share Posted September 20, 2021 1 hour ago, SleepyJoe said: Andrew Marr was giving some young climate activists [including a 19 year old with a doctorate] a hard time on R4 this morning One of them said manufacturers produce a million cars a year, & they need to retool to making a million carbon capture machines https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000zsdg They'll have to invent an efficient and cheap 'carbon capture machine first'. There are some working now, but very much experimental and outrageously expensive. Then there is the question how do you power them - unless you're living in a country that already generates most of it's needs from renewables, you're robbing Peter to pay Paul. 29 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said: There will be some manufacture of soil, both directly and indirectly, but it's true that things like the reinstatement of peat bogs might be better for carbon capture. As ever people and politicians need to understand that the natural world is complex and no one simple solution is going to solve anything. They can't go "Oh look we've put 5p on plastic bags - that's saved the planet!". Indeed, but can you actually create a peat bog? 9 minutes ago, Max Power said: Yes Roger, agreed. But therein lies the problem, the UK is one of the cleaner countries which has resolved to become even cleaner. This is a world wide issue and we seem to be banging our heads against a brick wall in getting the likes of China, Africa and the USA to take this more seriously. The UK is actually really good. Almost 50% of it's energy comes from renewables. I'm sure I saw that Scotland last winter maybe did 100 days straight of just renewable and it was 97% for the entire year! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Mexico Posted September 20, 2021 Share Posted September 20, 2021 35 minutes ago, The Phantom said: They'll have to invent an efficient and cheap 'carbon capture machine first'. There are some working now, but very much experimental and outrageously expensive. Then there is the question how do you power them - unless you're living in a country that already generates most of it's needs from renewables, you're robbing Peter to pay Paul. I think that's taken as a given, though obviously it's not a reason to start researching and building prototypes. Presumably places such as Iceland which have high rates of renewable energy anyway (and at times a surplus) will be where work is trialled. 45 minutes ago, The Phantom said: Indeed, but can you actually create a peat bog? Difficult from scratch (or rather it takes a long time) but reinstatement can be quite easy - sometimes it's just a matter of filling in drainage channels. As ever it's complicated, but that should be an excuse for not doing it. Of course it may have other uses, such as preventing flooding. MWT are surveying and hope to produce a plan. 51 minutes ago, The Phantom said: The UK is actually really good. Almost 50% of it's energy comes from renewables. I'm sure I saw that Scotland last winter maybe did 100 days straight of just renewable and it was 97% for the entire year! Not quite true as regards the UK. Our World in Data has a lot of info on this and gives a figure of 14.45% for 2019. Quite good by European standards, but lower than many. You may be getting confused with the percentage of electricity generated (they give 42%) but there's obviously a lot of other direct energy use - transport, heating, industry and so on. Again it's not bad and a good increase in recent decades (the UK never had much hydro) but still not 'really good' compared even to such unlikely places as Albania or North Korea. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Phantom Posted September 20, 2021 Share Posted September 20, 2021 4 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said: Presumably places such as Iceland which have high rates of renewable energy anyway (and at times a surplus) will be where work is trialled. They've got one rocking in Iceland as we speak. But yeah it needs huge amounts of energy and that is realistically free in Iceland... Elon has pledged $100m to the best option, so hopefully they'll be lots of research into it now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cambon Posted September 20, 2021 Share Posted September 20, 2021 3 hours ago, The Phantom said: Limiting the emissions of Carbon Dioxide or making our use of causes of the release much more efficient will have a much greater and more urgent effect. If we stopped creating all Man made greenhouse gases today, the earth would continue to warm up at the same rate. Cutting emissions is the sticking plaster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellanvannin2010 Posted September 20, 2021 Share Posted September 20, 2021 2 hours ago, Max Power said: Yes Roger, agreed. But therein lies the problem, the UK is one of the cleaner countries which has resolved to become even cleaner. This is a world wide issue and we seem to be banging our heads against a brick wall in getting the likes of China, Africa and the USA to take this more seriously. It is noticeable that XR does not seem very active in China or Russia, see this article. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-58584976 19 minutes ago, Cambon said: If we stopped creating all Man made greenhouse gases today, the earth would continue to warm up at the same rate. Cutting emissions is the sticking plaster. Things are going to get worse for a long time before any change for the better (if it is even possible). We need to balance the population to what nature and the world will support. I doubt that prospect garners many votes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheTeapot Posted September 20, 2021 Share Posted September 20, 2021 9 minutes ago, ellanvannin2010 said: It is noticeable that XR does not seem very active in China or Russia, see this article. Well known countries for allowing political protest these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Power Posted September 21, 2021 Share Posted September 21, 2021 On 9/20/2021 at 3:21 PM, The Phantom said: The UK is actually really good. Almost 50% of it's energy comes from renewables. I'm sure I saw that Scotland last winter maybe did 100 days straight of just renewable and it was 97% for the entire year! Shockingly, we have the world's largest wind farm within sight of our island. It can power roughly 500,000 homes at full stretch. The UK has 28,000,000 homes, so we need 56 Walney Island sized wind farms running at capacity to power them all. Then of course there is industry, hospitals etc to consider on top of that. Europe has had a huge turndown in wind generated power this year, due to lack of, wind! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Phantom Posted September 21, 2021 Share Posted September 21, 2021 4 minutes ago, Max Power said: Europe has had a huge turndown in wind generated power this year, due to lack of, wind! I can believe it. Don't know if anyone has noticed the seeming absence of wind this year? This is the best that I can do in terms of someone actually crunching some data - waves not wind, but one creates the other.. flattest spell in 13 years https://magicseaweed.com/news/flattest-spell-forever/12528/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellanvannin2010 Posted September 21, 2021 Share Posted September 21, 2021 (edited) 25 minutes ago, The Phantom said: I can believe it. Don't know if anyone has noticed the seeming absence of wind this year? This is the best that I can do in terms of someone actually crunching some data - waves not wind, but one creates the other.. flattest spell in 13 years https://magicseaweed.com/news/flattest-spell-forever/12528/ And therein lies the problem with the current technologies for renewable energy supply. They rely on a natural unreliable source of fuel. Edited September 21, 2021 by ellanvannin2010 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellanvannin2010 Posted September 21, 2021 Share Posted September 21, 2021 (edited) 25 minutes ago, The Phantom said: Edited September 21, 2021 by ellanvannin2010 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.