Countdown to Earth Day - Environmental Issues

MacMadame

MacMadame

Staying at home
Messages
38,791
Renewable doesn't mean reusable and it never has. That's why the motto is: reduce, reuse, recycle. Three different things.

Of course, all the equipment that is used to turn coal into electricity isn't reusable either but let's not talk about that...
 
A

Artistic Skaters

Drawing Figures
Messages
7,703
The billions of dollars donated to address climate change will certainly help, but Bezos still has yet to own his contribution to the problem. Among other things, Amazon returns encourage poor shopping choices by selfish consumers and the shipping restrictions at their warehouses have resulted in packages being shipped two or three times for prep work before reaching the warehouse that will deliver to customers.
www.latimes.com

Those Amazon returns? They’re killing the environment

As consumers and companies rethink their choices in light of climate change, e-commerce returns amount to a hidden environmental crisis.
www.latimes.com www.latimes.com
billingsgazette.com

Amazon preppers: How rural Montana benefits from online conglomerate

Local Montanan prep centers, which work with Amazon sellers to package products, are providing remote work in rural Montana as well-paying job options dwindle in small towns.
billingsgazette.com billingsgazette.com
It would be nice if he would spend some of Amazon's tax free millions on improving company methods and policies to help the environment too.

On another note, the civil lawsuits seem to be successfully addressing environmental issues.
www.reuters.com

U.S. peach grower awarded $265 million from Bayer, BASF in weedkiller lawsuit

A Missouri jury's $265 million award to peach grower Bill Bader in his lawsuit against herbicide providers Bayer and BASF has raised the stakes for the two companies as at least 140 similar cases head to U.S. courts later this year.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com
A jury in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, handed Bader, the state’s largest peach farmer, $15 million in actual and $250 million in punitive damages. He sued the companies saying his 1,000-acre orchard was irreparably harmed by herbicide that they produce, which drifted onto its trees from nearby farms.

The three-week trial was the first case in the United States to rule on the use of dicamba-based herbicides alleged to have damaged tens of thousands of acres of U.S. cropland. The herbicide can become a vapor and drift for miles when used in certain weather, farmers have claimed.
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As long as Trump and Co have the EPA diluting regulations for air, water, chemicals, etc. I hope we will continue to see as many of these verdicts as possible.
 
ballettmaus

ballettmaus

Well-Known Member
Messages
15,793
Lack of snow has led to less water in the Colorado River. https://www.washingtonpost.com/clim...an-billion-tons-water-wests-most-vital-river/

The Colorado River’s average annual flow has declined by nearly 20 percent compared to the last century, and now a new study has identified one of the main culprits: Climate change is causing mountain snowpack to disappear, leading to increased evaporation.

...

Now, two U.S. Geological Survey researchers have concluded that much of this climate-induced decline — amounting to 1.5 billion tons of missing water, equal to the annual water consumption of 10 million Americans — comes from the fact that the region’s snowpack is shrinking and melting earlier. Having less snow to reflect heat from the sun, known as the albedo effect, creates a negative feedback loop, they say.
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Jot the Dot Dot

Jot the Dot Dot

Headstrong Buzzard
Messages
3,994
Hooboy, when the left eats it's own! There is this new documentary that attacks the Green movement as it stands today. While you may not agree with it's conclusions, or it's preeminent anti-capitalist message, it does raise undeniable points about the unsustainability of so-called 'green' energy without fossil fuels or nuclear energy as standby or back-up. And who was the executive producer of this? Michael Moore! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk11vI-7czE
 
DORISPULASKI

DORISPULASKI

Watching submarine races
Messages
12,166
I watched it. While I knew a lot of the info (This sort of thing has long been an interest of mine, so my younger son sent me a link, and said, mom, you'll love it.), I did not know that the big solar installations in Nevada had been allowed to fall into disrepair.

And I had no idea how much the Koch brothers were in bed with a lot of prominent green organizations and spokespeople.

I did know that green folk were ok with burning the forests to create electricity, since I lived in Chittenden County, home of the Burlington wood chip plant, now called biomass. It has been a long time since the Lorax spoke for the trees.
 
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A

Artistic Skaters

Drawing Figures
Messages
7,703
Jot the Dot Dot, you only seem to update this thread when you want to ridicule and criticize, but never with any suggestions for worthwhile policies or personal actions to resolve environmental problems.

Do you enjoy filthy air and water or believe people should take no responsibility for selfish unnecessary overconsumption? Do you believe shirking corporate responsibility for toxic waste is a good attribute for companies to follow?

I don't deny there are problems with NGD (as I have discussed on many previous occasions) or other such policies and issues. But you, like so many others, make it sound as if everyone interested in environmental protections and treading lightly on the planet can be stereotyped into one big group of granola chomping left wing ignorant hippies. The reality is there are people from many different factions, from scientists to evangelical Christians and the whole range in-between.
 
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clairecloutier

clairecloutier

Well-Known Member
Messages
11,087
Some good news ... Renewable energy is providing a growing share of the United States' overall electricity supply. The cost of building and running wind and solar facilities have decreased, as have natural gas prices. Increasingly, it's more expensive to run coal-fired plants than to use either of these other alternatives.

In a First, Renewable Energy Is Poised to Eclipse Coal


The United States is on track to produce more electricity this year from renewable power than from coal for the first time on record, new government projections show.

The latest report from the Energy Information Administration estimates that America’s total coal consumption will fall by nearly one-quarter this year, and coal plants are expected to provide just 19 percent of the nation’s electricity, dropping for the first time below both nuclear power and renewable power, a category that includes wind, solar, hydroelectric dams, geothermal and biomass.

Natural gas plants, which supply 38 percent of the nation’s power, are expected to hold their output steady thanks to low fuel prices.
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ballettmaus

ballettmaus

Well-Known Member
Messages
15,793
Dominion and Duke Energy have cancelled their Atlantic Coast pipeline project. https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/05/us/duke-dominion-energy-cancel-atlantic-coast-pipeline/index.html

Dominion Energy and Duke Energy have canceled their Atlantic Coast Pipeline project, a natural gas pipeline that was to stretch hundreds of miles across West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina, citing "legal uncertainty."

Despite a recent win for the project in the US Supreme Court, ongoing delays, litigation and an expected increase in costs threatened the economic viability of the project, the companies said Sunday.
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ballettmaus

ballettmaus

Well-Known Member
Messages
15,793
Virginia has joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. https://www.governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/all-releases/2020/july/headline-859128-en.html

Governor Ralph Northam today announced that the Commonwealth of Virginia has become the newest member of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a market-based collaborative effort among Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states to combat climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector, while driving economic growth. RGGI members include Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and now Virginia.
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It's interesting to see how Virginia and West Virginia reversed the progressive/conservative roles over time.
 
ballettmaus

ballettmaus

Well-Known Member
Messages
15,793
Apologies if this has been posted elsewhere. I don't recall seeing it. Ten days ago, Harris and AOC introduced the Climate Equity Act. https://thehill.com/policy/energy-e...climate-equity-bill-with-green-new-deal-roots

The legislation, finalized after a draft was rolled out last year, is designed to address the third pillar of the Green New Deal — ensuring no community gets left behind.

...

The Climate Equity Act requires legislation to be weighted with an “equity score” that would estimate the impact on so-called front-line communities, often communities of color and low-income communities that bear the brunt of environmental damage
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ballettmaus

ballettmaus

Well-Known Member
Messages
15,793
The article is a month old but Costa Rica has regrown its forest. https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/27/americas/reforestation-costa-rica-c2e-spc/index.html

In the 1940s, 75% of Costa Rica was cloaked in lush rainforests. Then the loggers arrived, chainsaws in hand, and cleared the land to grow crops and raise livestock. While there is ongoing debate about the extent of reduction, it is thought that between a half and a third of forest cover had been destroyed by 1987.

Soon after this all-time low, the government took a series of radical actions to convert the country back into a natural paradise. In 1996 it made it illegal to chop down forest without approval from authorities and the following year it introduced PES.

Today almost 60% of the land is once again forest. Cloud forests envelop the country's mountain peaks, thick rainforest lines the beaches of the south and dry forest sweeps the northeast. This rich landscape is home to around half a million plant and animal species.
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A

Artistic Skaters

Drawing Figures
Messages
7,703
The El Dorado fire that burned over 7,000 acres in Southern California over the weekend was sparked by a device at a gender reveal party, Cal Fire said.

A “smoke-generating pyrotechnic device” used at a gender reveal party sparked the fire on Saturday morning, according to a California Department of Foresty and Fire Protection news release. The fire spread from the El Dorado Ranch Park in Yucaipa to Yucaipa Ridge, officials said.
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I hope CA charges them a crime and massive financial penalties. It's not like there isn't a track record regarding the safety of these overblown events. There was that AZ man who set off the same type of thing in a big dry field and is now on the hook for millions of dollars. There was also that gender reveal that sent shrapnel flying through the air and killed grandma.

All this destruction by self centered negligent people for some selfies and Instagram posts.
 
ballettmaus

ballettmaus

Well-Known Member
Messages
15,793
Ford and GM have known since the 60s and 70s that emissions contribute to climate change. https://thehill.com/policy/transpor...-1960s-emissions-caused-climate-change-report



Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina are collaborating on offshore wind energy projects. https://www.washingtonpost.com/clim...ba2d32-19ef-11eb-befb-8864259bd2d8_story.html
The collaboration will attempt to make it easier and more predictable for companies to work across the three states, encourage manufacturing of parts for wind turbines and other infrastructure, and reduce project costs through supply chain development, a joint news release said.
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I guess, we're all soon going to be without power, have cancer and won't have any birds anymore. :saint:
 
A

Artistic Skaters

Drawing Figures
Messages
7,703
www.npr.org

In Historic Move, Colorado Voters Decide To Reintroduce Gray Wolves

The move challenges a long tradition of leaving wildlife management to governments, not the public. But the vote was narrow, reflecting many people's serious concerns about bringing wolves back.
www.npr.org www.npr.org
In a move criticized as "ballot box biology," passage means Colorado will become the first state where voters direct the reintroduction of gray wolves rather than the federal government. Those previous efforts have brought populations of wolves back to the northern Rockies, New Mexico, Arizona and the Carolinas.

One complicating factor is the Trump administration's recent decision to remove gray wolves from the endangered species list.

If it survives expected legal challenges, it could make Colorado's task easier, since state wildlife managers won't need permission from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to manage the species. But it also may mean the state won't be able to receive federal grants for the project.
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The lesson I take away from this is that procedurally it's a workaround available for environmentalist use in the DT era.
 
ballettmaus

ballettmaus

Well-Known Member
Messages
15,793
Jot the Dot Dot

Jot the Dot Dot

Headstrong Buzzard
Messages
3,994
I have a few questions for those who want 'Green' energy to not just supplement present coal, gas and nuclear energy, but to eventually replace it. First, let's call it the 'Green electric grid', consisting of windmills/turbines, solar panels and biofuels. What would be the distribution of these, if this were ever to replace present energy sources? I'm thinking it might be 45% wind power, 45% solar panels and 10% biofuels. Is that close to being in the ballpark, is there a more plausible mix/distribution?

More important, if this were to replace present energy sources, how many windmills/turbines would it take to fulfill it's share of this grid in America? Or in Canada? And, to replace them without any reduction in power output ? Has there been a study that can answer this, to their best guess or estimation? None of this is mere nitpicking, if you want to sell to the general public a vision of an environmentally friendly future, you're going to have to come clean (no pun intended) on what the cost will be.
 
skatingguy

skatingguy

Golden Team
Messages
7,841
Canada only needs to replace 18% of current electricity production to remove carbon-based sources.


Electricity facts

www.nrcan.gc.ca www.nrcan.gc.ca
 
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