human actions, global climate change, global human solutions
POSTED BY: 1kiki
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 19:38
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Why do we need carbon capture?
Joel Eissenberg | July 20, 2024 8:27 am
Why do we need carbon capture at all? Can’t we just conserve our way out of global warming?
No.
Here are a couple of reasons why the *only* way to avert climate disaster is to start removing carbon from the atmosphere:
1. The half-life of CO2 in the atmosphere is ca. 120 years. What that means is that if all sources of CO2—man-made, forest fires, vulcanism, etc—ceased worldwide starting tomorrow, it would take 120 years for atmospheric CO2 to drop by half. So conservation isn’t enough to reverse the march to climate crisis. Suggesting that carbon capture is just a distraction from having Americans drive less is, to put it gently, hopelessly and tragically naïve.
2. The global anthropogenic sources of CO2 will only expand. 3rd world nations want the economies that the industrialized nation built with burning coal, oil and gas, and it is futile (and arrogant) to admonish them to forego improving their standard of living to that of the industrialized world.
Carbon capture isn’t the enemy of conservation. The world needs *both* carbon capture and conservation if it is to avert climate disaster and resource wars that threaten to destroy human civilization in the next thirty years. This isn’t the time for virtue signaling. Are there risks associated with geoengineering? Sure. But there is a risk bordering on certainty that catastrophe will follow if we rely solely on the hope that somehow the world will dial down energy consumption.
https://angrybearblog.com/2024/07/why-do-we-need-carbon-capture
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Monday was hottest day ever measured by humans, beating Sunday, European science service says; "Uncharted territory"
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hottest-day-monday-edging-out-sunday-clli
mate-change-european-science-agency/
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Model Behavior: Visualizing Global Carbon Dioxide
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14631
This global map of CO2 was created by NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio using a model called GEOS, short for the Goddard Earth Observing System. GEOS is a high-resolution weather reanalysis model, powered by supercomputers, that is used to represent what was happening in the atmosphere — including storm systems, cloud formations, and other natural events. GEOS pulls in billions of data points from ground observations and satellite instruments, such as the Terra satellite’s MODIS and the Suomi-NPP satellite’s VIIRS instruments. Its resolution is more than 100 times greater than your typical weather model.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Park Fire Burns '5,000 Acres An Hour' In California
https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/park-fire-burns-5000-acres-hour-cali
fornia
Better forest management needed!!!
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.
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nature making noise
New study disputes Hunga Tonga volcano's role in 2023–24 global warm-up
https://phys.org/news/2024-07-disputes-hunga-tonga-volcano-role.html
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Quote:"Our paper pours cold water on the explanation that the eruption caused the extreme warmth of 2023 and 2024," Dessler explained. "Instead, we need to focus primarily on greenhouse gases from human activities as the main cause of the warming, with a big assist from the ongoing El Niño."
Originally posted by JAYNEZTOWN:
nature making noise
New study disputes Hunga Tonga volcano's role in 2023–24 global warm-up
https://phys.org/news/2024-07-disputes-hunga-tonga-volcano-role.html
According to Dessler, this research has important implications for both scientists and the general public. By dismissing the volcanic eruption as a major factor in the recent warming, the team's study reinforces his point that human-induced greenhouse gas emissions are the primary driver of climate change. This focus is particularly relevant, given the ongoing debate and misinformation about the causes of global warming.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Raging California Wildfire Swells to 5th Largest in State History
The Park fire has destroyed more than 300 structures, mostly single-family homes, and is bigger than the city of Los Angeles.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/massive-california-wildfire-only-18-p
ercent-contained-after-a-week-5697599
In addition to releasing tremendous amounts of greenhouses gases and reducing carbon capture for decades to come, the fire is damaging two of the last remaining viable salmon watersheds.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.
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Climate denialists – 23 in Senate and 100 in House – are all Republicans
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/climate-deniers-of-the-118th-
congress/
This analysis explores rhetorical shifts from outright climate denial to subtler types of obstruction, which may further delay action on the climate crisis as well as prolong the influence of the fossil fuel industry on environmental and energy policy in the United States. While “climate denial” is arguably the most commonly understood and historically used term, it only describes one type of an ever-widening array of tactics.
Some members of Congress have shifted from outright climate denial to other rhetorical tactics. Examples include redirecting responsibility for addressing the climate crisis, such as deferring U.S. actions to reduce greenhouse emissions until other countries act first; portraying climate activism as alarmism; or spreading misinformation.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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The lost history of what Americans knew about climate change in the 1960s
It wasn't just scientists who were worried, but Congress, the White House, and even Sports Illustrated.
By Kate Yoder | Aug 05, 2024
https://grist.org/science/lost-history-climate-1960s-clean-air-act-sup
reme-court/
Naomi Oreskes, a historian of science at Harvard University, has found more than 100 examples of congressional hearings that examined CO2 and the greenhouse effect prior to the adoption of the Clean Air Act.
The research adds weight to arguments that Congress intended to give the EPA a broad authority to regulate pollution, including greenhouse gas emissions — a matter that has become more important, the authors say, in the aftermath of the West Virginia v. EPA decision in 2022 that limited the agency’s ability to regulate power plant emissions. The court’s conservative majority invoked a new argument called the “major questions doctrine,” requiring a very clear statement from Congress to authorize regulations that have “vast economic and political significance.”
Oreskes’ paper demonstrates that members of Congress, when discussing the Clean Air Act in 1970, were aware that addressing climate change could have significant economic consequences, for energy production and the automotive industry, for example. Oreskes hopes the paper will “put the lie to the myth that has been propagated that the Clean Air Act had nothing to do with carbon dioxide” and spur conversation among lawyers, judges, and legal scholars.
By the mid-1960s, climate change was already becoming a matter of concern to the federal government, the new analysis shows. A 1965 report from the National Science Foundation found that the ways humans were inadvertently changing the world — through urban development, agriculture, and fossil fuels — were “becoming of sufficient consequence to affect the weather and climate of large areas and ultimately the entire planet.”
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Estimated 75% jump in electricity demand! (Because of Climate Change. Climate Change Deniers in the State Legislature deny that Texas needs more electricity.)
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas predicts that electricity demand will reach 150 gigawatt in less than six years.
By Sara DiNatale | August 12, 2024
https://www.expressnews.com/business/article/is-ercot-2030-texas-power
-demand-overblown-19626094.php
Energy experts are challenging the state grid operator’s jaw-dropping projection for how high electrical demand could rise by 2030, saying that even as Texas faces explosive growth, there is no way its thirst for electricity will reach 150 gigawatt in less than six years — a forecast that has put lawmakers in a tizzy. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas’s Long Term Load Forecast is at https://www.ercot.com/gridinfo/load/forecast
To date, the highest peak demand recorded by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas is about 85.5 gigawatts. And Juan Arteaga — a senior analyst with Enverus, which recently published its own study on demand projections — is skeptical of the motivation behind those who say it could rise 75% by the end of the decade.
“These guys are not stupid,” Arteaga said. “They’re just using that number to push for either more funds or more infrastructure investment. They run the system. They know it’s unrealistic.”
Enverus puts its demand projection for Texas in 2030 at 93.5 gigawatts — still a 10% jump accounting for population growth and electric vehicles, but far less jarring than ERCOT’s estimate that total demand could more than double from its level in 2020.
ERCOT’s latest end-of-decade projections sent shock waves through the Capitol that manifested during June hearings by the Texas House and Senate. The figure is still top of mind for lawmakers, as they consider increasing the Texas Energy Fund’s $5 billion of available taxpayer-backed funding to support low-interest loans for more natural gas plants.
ERCOT stood by the estimate as recently as last week during a second energy-focused hearings at the Texas House.
Rep. David Spiller, R-Jacksboro, asked ERCOT Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Woody Rickerson whether he concurred with the roughly 150 gigawatt estimate that CEO Pablo Vegas had shared with lawmakers.
Rickerson said he did, as Spiller shared his concerns about what that level of sudden demand growth would do to the grid’s reliability.
“We may be able to get there, should be able to get there. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get there in that time frame,” Spiller said about the challenge to increase generation capacity accordingly. “My concern is the interim. I mean, the next year, two, three, and four (years) are the biggest concerns that I’ve got.”
When Spiller asked Rickerson whether he shared such concern, the ERCOT executive said he did.
“If the load growth occurs more rapidly than the generation shows up, we’ll have some scarcity conditions for sure,” Rickerson said.
ERCOT’s estimate origins
After ERCOT’s estimate was made public, Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov Dan Patrick said they would seek to increase the Texas Energy Fund “as soon as possible.”
“If the new estimate is correct, the updated numbers provided by Mr. Vegas call for an immediate review of all policies concerning the grid,” Abbott and Patrick said in a joint statement last month.
ERCOT recently updated the estimate to 151 gigawatts.
Texas law and the Public Utility Regulatory Act call for ERCOT to consider factors such as historical load and forecasted growth as part of its evaluation of needed transmission. Recent changes to the law also call for ERCOT to consider proposed development in the queue, even projects that are speculative and not backed by things such as signed contracts or interconnection agreements.
ERCOT said in a statement that its analysis includes about 62 gigawatts of large loads.
“The process consists of two parts,” ERCOT said. “The first part of the process is to establish a bounded load level which provides
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