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Post by pt3r on Jul 17, 2021 16:24:48 GMT
How are my fellow Europeans doing? Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands have had some serious floodings, with many fatal casualties . I hope nobody has been hit by the water.
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Post by maydonpoliris on Jul 17, 2021 20:21:31 GMT
Wow, so many areas effected. Thoughts go out to everyone over there. Hope no one is impacted.
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Post by 101 on Jul 18, 2021 0:27:19 GMT
Wow, so many areas effected. Thoughts go out to everyone over there. Hope no one is impacted. Terrible tragedy. Hope Robert and his clan are all OK. |
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Post by robertlanger on Jul 18, 2021 18:19:58 GMT
Hi Guys,
no worries, we are safe and well - for this time...
We are in the south of Germany and weren't hit so hard by the floods than other parts.
But obviously, the climate crisis shows it's effects now also here, not any more mainly in so-called 3rd-world-countries. Serious topic...
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Post by keurslagerkurt on Jul 20, 2021 18:48:47 GMT
I'm safe & my families too (west side of Belgium which was spared from the disaster).
Hope everyone is doing well too, really insane to see complete villages destroyed. I hope it can indeed by a wake-up call for the group of ppl that are still downplaying climate change. I heard it hit Austria too by now, hope no one is hit there too.
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pol
Wiki Editors
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Post by pol on Jul 29, 2021 19:59:23 GMT
In Scotland, on the west coast (normally pretty wet) we have had over 3 weeks with no rain and new record high temperatures in the county I live in. Nowhere near Canada and western USA's problems but been a bugger looking after my newly planted garden!
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Post by pt3r on Jul 29, 2021 20:56:37 GMT
You have to be pretty delusional if you don't realize that climate change is a reality and that this will be the new normal unless 'developed' countries take real responsibilities/measures instead of paying CO2 taxes and signing another climate agreement that remains dead letter. Those agreements clearly don't stop flooding or drought.
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Post by maydonpoliris on Jul 30, 2021 0:40:50 GMT
You have to be pretty delusional if you don't realize that climate change is a reality and that this will be the new normal unless 'developed' countries take real responsibilities/measures instead of paying CO2 taxes and signing another climate agreement that remains dead letter. Those agreements clearly don't stop flooding or drought. We should have a meeting to discuss having a meeting about this. That should fix it/s..... |
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pol
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Post by pol on Aug 1, 2021 12:39:47 GMT
You have to be pretty delusional if you don't realize that climate change is a reality and that this will be the new normal unless 'developed' countries take real responsibilities/measures instead of paying CO2 taxes and signing another climate agreement that remains dead letter. Those agreements clearly don't stop flooding or drought. We should have a meeting to discuss having a meeting about this. That should fix it/s..... And we need to arrange a meeting to organise the planning meeting... |
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Post by pt3r on Aug 1, 2021 12:59:21 GMT
We should have a meeting to discuss having a meeting about this. That should fix it/s..... And we need to arrange a meeting to organise the planning meeting...
And then postpone because of covid, or d*cks in space. |
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Post by slowscape on Aug 1, 2021 14:20:29 GMT
And the saddest part -- There are so many awesome solutions out there! The latest one I saw was flash graphene. Turn basically anything (carbon based) into a product that isn't toxic and immensely useful in almost every industry you can imagine.
and
Stay well all 🙏
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Post by maydonpoliris on Aug 1, 2021 19:53:57 GMT
And the saddest part -- There are so many awesome solutions out there! The latest one I saw was flash graphene. Turn basically anything (carbon based) into a product that isn't toxic and immensely useful in almost every industry you can imagine.
and
Stay well all 🙏
Wow. some people have all the smarts. |
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Post by keurslagerkurt on Aug 6, 2021 14:50:48 GMT
And the saddest part -- There are so many awesome solutions out there! The latest one I saw was flash graphene. Turn basically anything (carbon based) into a product that isn't toxic and immensely useful in almost every industry you can imagine.
and
Stay well all 🙏
Featuring a pretty dope synth background track too haha! Very interesting, and closely related to my studies. Certainly a great discovery. But some extra thoughts that spring to mind: - It would require us to split our waste (both household & industrial) a bit more, so all carbon based stuff is collected seperate. (happens pretty good in Belgium already, its def possible) - Biggest remark is on the video creator: the part at 3:07 implies that 'stuff that goes to a landfill could now be reused', which is very certainly 90% untrue. Most landfill stuff is either not carbon based, or it is carbon based but filled/doped with rare earth metals, other trace metals, arsene, sulfur,.. For which I suspect the method would not be as good, as for example those metals are single atoms: ie they wont be burned into a gas but rather go sit in the graphene. Of course, what gets dumped in a landfill differs a lot in each country.. In Belgium there are only two landfills left that are in use, and they get used only for the reaaaal toxic waste. - Bonus thought: most carbon waste now in developed countries, either gets recycled (PET, PE,..), gets composted, or gets burnt to create electricity. So this graphene method would have to be better than these options. So for example: it would be an interesting study/analysis to try and quantify whether its more worth to produce electricity, or use electricity and create graphene (for a specific waste stream). A bit of rambling, and I'm sure all these doctors & profs are way more qualified & are already three thinking steps ahead. It's more of a thing I have with science-reporting media, they tend to frame research/science as doing these HUGE discoveries and big jumps, while its more of a 'three steps forward two steps back' process. |
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Post by slowscape on Aug 8, 2021 16:33:16 GMT
keurslagerkurt Yeah, like you said I'm sure they are steps ahead in thinking already.
When you look into graphene, it's pretty amazing stuff. Probably much more beneficial to create loads of the stuff at low cost as it will have huge impacts on energy production and use in the future.
Some applications I've seen: More efficient solar panels Novel energy collection processes (like from rain)
Better battery technology
Use in computers, faster more robust read/write Medical uses: The doctor in the video brought back the use of a rat's legs who had severed spinal cord -- I think it was ~90% efficiency after a few weeks.
lighter stronger plastics -- use less plastic to do the same thing (emissions saving)
lighter stronger concrete -- use less, do the same (emissions saving) Hydrogen production
Efficient splitting of water and oil with a single membrane
The list is pretty endless!
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Post by pt3r on Aug 9, 2021 8:21:31 GMT
How will we generate the electricity for all of these innovations, in a sustainable, economically viable way? When will we dare to calculate the real total climate cost of the different solutions? For example what is the REAL total C02 emission of a modern car with combustion engine over a lifespan of let's say 7 years compared to the electric alternative? Producing those batteries also emits CO2, coltan does not grow on trees and only seems to be available in those places that are almost the furthest away from the places where the batteries are produced,etc... I would not want my children to have to work in a coltan mine in Congo...
I'm having serious issues with the way that some green parties don't dare to really look in every aspect of this complex problem, which makes them as responsible as the climate change deniers.
Treehugging only relieves stress, it does not generate (enough?) electricity AFAIK. |
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Post by slowscape on Aug 14, 2021 22:13:40 GMT
Wow, I had never heard of coltan. Just looked into it, that sure gives me even more reason to not upgrade my phone.
Totally agree with you pt3r re. electric vs gas vehicles etc. When I mention the battery and electricity issues in electric cars I get responses that make me seem like I don't care. I do care, that's why I bring it up. I just don't care to live in a fantasy world where these are solving world issues in a major way.
This article notes the expense of graphene being a major issue in graphene battery technology, but that's now old news thanks to the process in the video above. Best part is, I think there's plenty of trash (and even CO2!) to convert to graphene, shouldn't be any wars fought over trash any time soon!
There are probably a lot of kinks to work out, but I fully believe graphene can make a huge impact. That's why I am currently invested in 3 graphene companies, including the one in the last link. I am a proponent of us little guys voting on and funding better solutions for the future with our hard earned dollars. Skip the governments who just want to talk and complain and kick the can.
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Post by dmoney2000 on Aug 15, 2021 14:07:15 GMT
Well this is a wonderful, if kinda sprawling topic that I have a lot of thoughts about. I'll try not to be too long winded.
The Chicxulub impact event which killed the dinosaurs, was an extinction event not only because of the force of the impact and the tsunami, but also because of the climate effects of all the carbon and dust that went into the atmosphere. Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have been putting the equivalent of a Chicxulub into the atmosphere approximately every 18 years.
The dangerous climate effects are coming, they're already here and they've only just begun. Governments are in a bind because even if they encouraged every citizen to make good environmental choices ( they don't), most of the carbon production is infrastructural, ie agriculture, power production, manufacturing etc.
Reversing the carbon trend would require basic, fundamental, deep changes in our daily lives. The products we use, the food we eat, our methods of transportation, where we live, how we build towns and homes, and how much energy we use would all be drastically and forever changed. People will have to live in smaller towns with maybe as much as half the population employed in food production, with an energy diet that is only a tiny fraction of the energy diet we enjoy now. It would be a simpler kind of lifestyle that won't generate the kind of millionaires and billionaires that crawl around everywhere now.
This is why governments engage in pomp-and-circumstance handshake deals that promise we might do something in 20 years, frantically throwing money at techno-solutions that don't help etc. Governments are funded and indeed totally captured by corporations that face extinction if real climate remediation measures are implemented. It's likely that most governments are not even structurally capable of responding to the crisis in any meaningful way (the type of administration style that could do it might look something more like wartime communism or some other extreme form of government). So for these reasons, climate is only addressed as a campaign talking point and any efforts to address it come in the form of ornate distractions.
I've realized that change will only come when it ABSOLUTELY HAS TO come. People will just never relinquish their lifestyle, and govt's and corporations will never give up swimming in money until EVERY alternative has failed. That day is coming soon. Millions of people are going to die very soon from climate affects, including natural disasters, crop failures, resource wars, water shortage, flooding, and the chaos that will come with mass climate related migration.
People have to first wake up to the reality of the situation. We're not in the comfortable time, floating calmly on the stream, looking at a waterfall slowly drawing nearer. We're actually well into the disaster, probably too late to turn the tide, if that was ever possible. It's a difficult realization but maybe people will realize what caused this, who was responsible, and pluck those people out of the places of power and privilege and throw them in prison cells where they belong.
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Post by keurslagerkurt on Aug 16, 2021 14:39:34 GMT
I've realized that change will only come when it ABSOLUTELY HAS TO come. People will just never relinquish their lifestyle, and govt's and corporations will never give up swimming in money until EVERY alternative has failed. That day is coming soon. Millions of people are going to die very soon from climate affects, including natural disasters, crop failures, resource wars, water shortage, flooding, and the chaos that will come with mass climate related migration. People have to first wake up to the reality of the situation. We're not in the comfortable time, floating calmly on the stream, looking at a waterfall slowly drawing nearer. We're actually well into the disaster, probably too late to turn the tide, if that was ever possible. It's a difficult realization but maybe people will realize what caused this, who was responsible, and pluck those people out of the places of power and privilege and throw them in prison cells where they belong. Def agree with your baseline point about billionaires & governments, however, Covid in EU has shown to me that a lot of people are willing to DRASTICALLY change their lifestyle when the government makes these extremely drastic decisions. Even though there was not yet a visible threat in Belgium (eg barely any hospitalisations, or covid cases), the whole country went in lockdown. Which was a pretty mindblowing response compared to the climate response. I guess a lot of people still think that we won't be affected by climate change that much, but I hope this flooding at least was some kind of wake-up call. Like, people will die, houses will be lost, lifestyles will be destroyed if we just keep on going. And not just in poor/faraway/tropic/whatever other countries, but also in Belgium. In order to reduce my own carbon emmissions, i tried to do some research on the most 'efficient' ways to do as such, and these were my main 'life' changes: - By a 1000 miles ahead of any other real change to my lifestyle, I stopped taking airplanes. This also seems to be the most 'controversial' change for my friends, who always try to convince me to take a holiday w the airplane with them, but I'm just not doing it anymore. Maybe, like 5 more times over my complete lifetime, for very special occasions or a huuuge, long trip. But not any time soon. If you look up the equivalent CO2 emission for one flight, it can be compared with eating like hundreds of hamburgers. It feels useless doing other stuff when I would still be taking airplanes every year.. It also helped me discover fantastic close-by regions, which I would never have visited otherwise. And it made me apreciate 'slow' travelling, watching the world around you change while you drive/go by train makes you really feel the 'travel' way more. It is however sad, knowing that I can't visit friends that live further away, but I guess part of the deal is also that in the real world, not 'everything is possible'.. - Being about 90% vegetarian, and vegan when possible. It went easier than I thought, but I give myself the freedom to eat some meat/diary from time to time. I don't buy meat/fish in the supermarket, but sometimes in a restaurant, or when visiting other people I still do. I feel like this not 'hardcore' way of going 100% veg helps me a lot in making it feel easy. - Living small, in a well isolated apt, in a dense populated area, and not having a car. This is the most personal one, as this of course has to fit your lifestyle and the person that you are. For me it was only half a 'real' choice, it also came rather naturally when searching for a place to live. I think thats the main thing that ppl need to realise: you never have to be all or nothing. Just start with what changes work for you specifically. Some ppl tend to say stuff like 'oh, I thought you were a REAL VEGETARIAN but apparentely you are not?', while they are eating some deep fried sausages. While any small change you do has an impact. Eating veggie one day a week is already a fantastic change with a real, measurable impact. Booking one flight less is already a huge difference in carbon emission. Taking a bike to work one day a week makes a difference. Just start small, and you'll see it feels GOOD.  |
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