Model Train Journal

What will it take to save the planet ?????

Fact check: The coronavirus pandemic isn’t slowing climate change
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/fac ... 090790001/

The claim: Drops in carbon emissions aren’t enough to significantly curb climate change

With the coronavirus pandemic shutting down most global activity, a consequent crash in global carbon emissions has been widely reported.

While analysts agree the historic lockdowns will significantly lower emissions, some environmentalists argue the drop is nowhere near enough.

“Hey so it turns out that the people of earth accidentally did a global experiment to see if every individual could course correct climate change through mass personal change of habits, and it turns out, no! We can't!,” a Facebook post shared more than 4,000 times reads.

The post shares a screenshot of another post that links to a Scientific American article with the chatter, "Despite all the 'natural is healing' commentary global CO2 emissions have not considerably declined during the pandemic. This suggests emissions levels relate less to individual behavior than larger structural factors only addressable through regulation."

Projections for 2020 climate, carbon emissions

Analyses are nearly universal in finding that global carbon emissions will decline from the record peak in 2019. The declines, largely driven by a steep reduction in vehicle emissions, have been so large that photographs from space reflected the change.

The International Energy Agency, a policy advisory group to 30 member countries, projects that global carbon emissions are set to fall by 8%, or levels the world hasn't seen for a decade.

Estimates of the full drop in carbon emissions vary as analysts adjust their models around the coronavirus pandemic, but the lowest estimates still expect about a 5% drop in emissions.

“This may sound small at first, but it is the largest drop since World War II, as emissions have generally increased year-over-year, even during recessions,” Ankur Desai, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told USA TODAY.

Desai said the drop is attributable to commercial travel and business operations; a larger decline wasn’t recorded because “much of the economy is still going on,” including manufacturing, shipping and food production.

IF climate change is caused by human activity then these scientist need to figure out what humans did to cool the planet during the little ice age.

Reversing climate change is going to take many decades if not centuries, and there is always the possibility of climate change unrelated to human activity. Human activity didn't cause the warmth of the Jurassic period or the cold of the ice age. But what is completely clear is that fossil fuels, particularly coal create pollution that causes heart, vascular and lung disease, as well as cancers. So the conversion to sustainable and non-polluting sources of energy such as solar, wind, tidal, geothermal energy has all sorts of benefits, independent of climate change.

We had best start preparing for coastal areas becoming uninhabitable, and perhaps the Sonoran desert becoming uninhabitable due to heat. Nothing we do is going to change the rising seas and temperatures. These will kill millions if not hundreds of millions in places like Bangladesh and the rest of Asia. Renewable energy has the advantage of providing electricity to run vehicles, grow food and provide shelter even if the next disaster is an ice age. We can live on top of the glaciers . If you own coastal property, sell it before it's too late. Mitigating air, water and environmental pollution from coal and other fossil fuels may minimize climate change, which is good, if mostly too late, but these policies are going to be important for reducing the toxicity of modern civilization to our hearts, blood vessels and lungs.

Neil wrote:Reversing climate change is going to take many decades if not centuries, and there is always the possibility of climate change unrelated to human activity. Human activity didn't cause the warmth of the Jurassic period or the cold of the ice age. But what is completely clear is that fossil fuels, particularly coal create pollution that causes heart, vascular and lung disease, as well as cancers. So the conversion to sustainable and non-polluting sources of energy such as solar, wind, tidal, geothermal energy has all sorts of benefits, independent of climate change.

We had best start preparing for coastal areas becoming uninhabitable, and perhaps the Sonoran desert becoming uninhabitable due to heat. Nothing we do is going to change the rising seas and temperatures. These will kill millions if not hundreds of millions in places like Bangladesh and the rest of Asia. Renewal energy has the advantage of providing electricity to run vehicles, grow food and provide shelter even if the next disaster is an ice age. We can live on top of the glaciers . If you own coastal property, sell it before it's too late. Mitigating air, water and environmental pollution from coal and other fossil fuels may minimize climate change, which is good, if mostly too late, but these policies are going to be important for reducing the toxicity of modern civilization to our hearts, blood vessels and lungs.

Something you and I can actually agree on. The biggest benefit to the reduction of carbon emissions this year has been the reduction in air pollution. especially in the big cities where the majority of the polluting cars are.

Net zero emissions by 2050 is going to be way too late.

Neil,
I agree with what you say above but the Sun is hardly ever mentioned as part of the cause.

Enjoy watching the David Attenborough nature and planet series for many years and he has a new one out on Netflix or Prime directly aimed at global warming, that's pretty scary. The elimination of phytoplankton and zooplankton due to ocean warming, over harvesting our oceans is eliminating many species, harvesting rain forests and jungles and the dwindling ice caps is creating havoc with greenhouse gases. Some of this is irreversible and will be catastrophic for the planet and people in the future. This truly takes a world order to control it and I don't see that happening until too late.

This time of year gives me a good chuckle. Watching my clean air save the environment neighbors. All of them using leaf blowers and burning leaves . Try raking and composting. They don’t want to hear it.

robert. wrote:This time of year gives me a good chuckle. Watching my clean air save the environment neighbors. All of them using leaf blowers and burning leaves . Try raking and composting. They don’t want to hear it.

I rake and our leaf blower is battery powered; burning leaves here is illegal. Bag it up for pick up or like I do rake it into the small wooded ares on my property and let Nature deal with the leaves. Every year I make 3-4 mounds and every year Winter and the weather reduce it back to small piles. Some parts of the county you just push the leaves over the curb and they vacuum up the leaves. Truck loads of leaf mulch then gets delivered to one of the county garden plot areas - go get what you want.

That idiot Biden has bought into climate change 100% so were in for rough times with a horrific waste of yours and mine money.

This is a hard issue to balance. Save the environment and remain economically competitive.

robert. wrote:This is a hard issue to balance. Save the environment and remain economically competitive.

Lots of jobs to be created in renewable energy; run that in parallel with a Nat'l infrastructure effort and our economy will be fine. Jobs, manufacturing, and security all together.

up148 wrote:Enjoy watching the David Attenborough nature and planet series for many years and he has a new one out on Netflix or Prime directly aimed at global warming, that's pretty scary. The elimination of phytoplankton and zooplankton due to ocean warming, over harvesting our oceans is eliminating many species, harvesting rain forests and jungles and the dwindling ice caps is creating havoc with greenhouse gases. Some of this is irreversible and will be catastrophic for the planet and people in the future. This truly takes a world order to control it and I don't see that happening until too late.

Have you noticed that in these programs they never talk about how overpopulation is contributing to the planets problems.

China 1,4 billion
India 1,4 billion
Africa 1,3 billion
United states 3,25 million

China has almost depleted the south China seas of fish. Now their trawlers are going around the world. They are off the coast of south America presently with the transponders turned off so they can't be tracked.

Australia has a huge supply of coal that they are still mining and selling to their biggest customer, CHINA.it's a major part of their economy.

And look at at the plastic trash that is being thrown away that ends up the oceans.

As George Carlin has said. The planet has been around for a billion years, It's not going anywhere, WE ARE.

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:

robert. wrote:This is a hard issue to balance. Save the environment and remain economically competitive.

Lots of jobs to be created in renewable energy; run that in parallel with a Nat'l infrastructure effort and our economy will be fine. Jobs, manufacturing, and security all together.

Renewable energy still creates heat. Heat still creates problems. We need to use less. Even if it’s cleaner. We need to get rid of the mindset. That if it’s cleaner i can use more.

robert. wrote:

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:

robert. wrote:This is a hard issue to balance. Save the environment and remain economically competitive.

Lots of jobs to be created in renewable energy; run that in parallel with a Nat'l infrastructure effort and our economy will be fine. Jobs, manufacturing, and security all together.

Renewable energy still creates heat. Heat still creates problems. We need to use less. Even if it’s cleaner. We need to get rid of the mindset. That if it’s cleaner i can use more.

Then your answer is to use no energy at all since nothing gets created without heat generation/loss. Heat can be put to use however and is not always just a wasted by-product

Good luck!

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:

robert. wrote:

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:
Lots of jobs to be created in renewable energy; run that in parallel with a Nat'l infrastructure effort and our economy will be fine. Jobs, manufacturing, and security all together.

Renewable energy still creates heat. Heat still creates problems. We need to use less. Even if it’s cleaner. We need to get rid of the mindset. That if it’s cleaner i can use more.

Then your answer is to use no energy at all. Good luck!

And that is exactly what it will take to reverse climate change. Otherwise we are up that proverbial creek without a paddle.

I'm not sure climate change can be stopped.
The part that is caused by man might be slowed but reversing it is probably beyond our abilities.