Climate in the 21st Century

[Grandpapy]

Regarding temperatures, my gut call is “way above body temps” for the polymers.

The phthalates however are reactive at our temps.

The bit of good news is that BPA has been aggressively unformulated from household plastics.

Wait! My "feelings"! I have anger to direct!

 

[cannabineer]

Wait! My "feelings"! I have anger to direct!

 

[Fogdog]

So just curious what you guys think about this.
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We are only going to get about 70% of the lawsuit monies that we were supposed to get from the PG&E fire lawsuit. It is supposed to make us whole. 70% because they filed bankruptcy.
Should we pay taxes on this? Is that right?
I hate republicans but Doug Lamalfa introduced a bill a couple years ago and it went no where. Was supposed to hit the house floor and then McCarthy got fired. Word is it’s being reintroduced.
What do you guys think? Should this be taxable like regular income?

Doesn't make sense to tax as income a court settlement that doesn't cover the losses. On top of that, Exxon claims billions in tax deductions while reaping profits from selling fossil fuels that are the root cause of the drought that made the fire so destructive.

Seems wrong to me.

 

[BudmanTX]

2023 was officially the hottest year ever. These charts show just how warm it was — and why it's so dangerous.

A breakdown of the numbers and elements that made 2023 the hottest year on record paints a picture of what's to come.

www.cbsnews.com

have to agree with that, especially where i'm at....90 day of over 90F and 75 days of over 100F.....and it's expected to get worse....

 

[DIY-HP-LED]

Their vision is to replace the cow and pig like the car replaced the horse, they are starting with eggs and dairy, cheeses and protein drinks or processed foods. Some people will never take to it, but that's what they said about Soylent Green! No animals are harmed though, so no nothing with a face and feelings harmed, ok maybe those who eat the shit! When you go through the drive thru, who knows what will pass through you!

The near-term tech futurists are big on it and expect it to have significant environmental impact from cow burps and farts alone, while driving down the cost of food and protein in particular. You can still have a garden for your greens and potatoes though, it might be a while before they can compete with direct dirt growing. It might have an impact on land use, but it could be a while before ya could fool someone with a real versus artificial replicated steak, though my sister says I'm gastronomically retarded...

Fermenting: the future of animal-free meat? | FT Tech

Silicon Valley venture capital is feeding a budding business in fermented, animal-free proteins, creating bacon, turkey and egg white from yeasts and fungus. San Francisco correspondent Dave Lee considers its potential over a few slices of fungus salami.

 

[injinji]

Limestone is fine if the kilns to make clinker are not hydrocarbon-fired. Setting concrete absorbs as much CO2 as was released by the kiln.

When I was writing I did a lot of research into turning limestone into quick lime. Since my story was set in North Carolina, which has no limestone to speak of, I even fired a couple of three buckets of oyster shells myself to see how much time and wood it would take. The heating produces CO2 as the limestone changes. I'm not as schooled in the chemistry of Portland as what was used in the early 1700's, but cement does account for 8% of CO2 emissions.


https://psci.princeton.edu/tips/2020/11/3/cement-and-concrete-the-environmental-impact

 

[cannabineer]

When I was writing I did a lot of research into turning limestone into quick lime. Since my story was set in North Carolina, which has no limestone to speak of, I even fired a couple of three buckets of oyster shells myself to see how much time and wood it would take. The heating produces CO2 as the limestone changes. I'm not as schooled in the chemistry of Portland as what was used in the early 1700's, but cement does account for 8% of CO2 emissions.


https://psci.princeton.edu/tips/2020/11/3/cement-and-concrete-the-environmental-impact

I’m willing to wager that the reason for that huge footprint is that making Portland cement clinker requires immensely high temperatures (about 1450°C!) to form the quicklime-rich phase Ca3SiO5 that is the main reactive component. Getting to such temps burns a lot of oil or coke. (Coking requires applying high temps to coal, so more carbon emitted.)

If the clinker process were done electrically or using carbon-free fuel (hydrogen?) concrete, mortar etc. would be carbon-neutral.

 

[DIY-HP-LED]

Look out vegetarians here come the flexitarians, whatever they are. Other futurists expect this industry to follow the same cost curves and S curves of adoption, a little later than solar and EVs until it hits its stride. If it works out the implications for world hunger, food prices and the environment could be enormous, and a lot of land reclaimed by nature and a lot of carbon and methane emissions avoided. Look for it over the next decade, economics and quality will drive it just like everything else, it's gotta make a buck and offer advantages. If all you need is cheap feed stock and energy though to make a high value product like milk proteins used by body builders and athletes or something like cheeses, then you might make a buck. The ranchers of America might feel the heat if this takes off and so will their politicians, groceries cost an arm and a leg, and some folks might not be that fussy.

It's both food and climate related so this is as good a spot as any.

Coming Soon: A Post-Cow World - Precision Fermentation

We are on the cusp of a major disruption in how we feed ourselves. This video is a quick summary of a report from RethinkX on where agriculture is headed over the next decade, and it's mind blowing! Tony Seba gives a great presentation here on YT. And you can download the whole report in PDF here:

 

[cannabineer]

Look out vegetarians here come the flexitarians, whatever they are. Other futurists expect this industry to follow the same cost curves and S curves of adoption, a little later than solar and EVs until it hits its stride. If it works out the implications for world hunger, food prices and the environment could be enormous, and a lot of land reclaimed by nature and a lot of carbon and methane emissions avoided. Look for it in the next decade, economics and quality will drive it just like everything else, it's gotta make a buck and offer advantages. If all you need is cheap feed stock and energy though to make a high value product like milk proteins used by body builders and athletes or something like cheeses, then you might make a buck. The ranchers of America might feel the heat if this takes off and so will their politicians, groceries cost an arm and a leg, and some folks might not be that fussy.

It's both food and climate related so this is as good a spot as any.

Coming Soon: A Post-Cow World - Precision Fermentation

We are on the cusp of a major disruption in how we feed ourselves. This video is a quick summary of a report from RethinkX on where agriculture is headed over the next decade, and it's mind blowing! Tony Seba gives a great presentation here on YT. And you can download the whole report in PDF here:

Wake me up when they can 3-D print an aged prime ribeye from vegan feedstocks. Until then, plant-derived nutrients are what food eats.

(Don’t get me wrong. So long as it cooks and tastes authentic, I’ll get right behind vegan “meat/seafood”.)

 

[DIY-HP-LED]

If the clinker process were done electrically or using carbon-free fuel (hydrogen?) concrete, mortar etc. would be carbon-neutral.

I believe for conventional Portland cement using limestone the chemical reaction that takes place liberates CO2, but that can be captured if it is heated electrically, CO2 is absorbed from the atmosphere as the concrete cures.

 

[cannabineer]

I believe for conventional Portland cement using limestone the chemical reaction that takes place liberates CO2, but that can be captured if it is heated electrically, CO2 is absorbed from the atmosphere as the concrete cures.

If they can do that (and have a way to disappear gigatons of the calcination gas) concrete could become a carbon sink.

 

[DIY-HP-LED]

Wake me up when they can 3-D print an aged prime ribeye from vegan feedstocks. Until then, plant-derived nutrients are what food eats.

(Don’t get me wrong. So long as it cooks and tastes authentic, I’ll get right behind vegan “meat/seafood”.)

Who knows what you will get at the drivethru, many people are not that particular, dogs and cats too! It's the cost curves you have to watch as the technology develops. If it works out as predicted it could have enormous implications for climate change and world hunger, not to mention politics in the American Midwest!

 

[DIY-HP-LED]

If they can do that (and have a way to disappear gigatons of the calcination gas) concrete could become a carbon sink.

Some kinds are and conventional concrete can be one too if the carbon is captured during manufacture, but there are other competing new electrochemical processes too.

 

[cannabineer]

Who knows what you will get at the drivethru, many people are not that particular, dogs and cats too! It's the cost curves you have to watch as the technology develops. If it works out as predicted it could have enormous implications for climate change and world hunger, not to mention politics in the American Midwest!

Drive-through is the easy stuff. Patties, nuggets. I’d like the higher end to be serviced. Imagine Malossol caviar and foie gras without harming animals.
And sashimi. I loves me a raw, fatty fish belly.

 

[cannabineer]

Some kinds are and conventional concrete can be one too if the carbon is captured during manufacture, but there are other competing new electrochemical processes too.

Iirc the projected competing processes are not commercial.

The bigger question is where to put the CO2.
Deep-ocean injection is a no-go as marine ecologies are already taking an acidification hit.
Maybe pumping it into old petroleum domes. They should hold together for a century or two.

 

[DIY-HP-LED]

Iirc the projected competing processes are not commercial.

The bigger question is where to put the CO2.
Deep-ocean injection is a no-go as marine ecologies are already taking an acidification hit.
Maybe pumping it into old petroleum domes. They should hold together for a century or two.

I'm not a big fan of carbon capture, maybe in the future as part of some climate mitigation scheme, there seem better ways and I posted about one that uses electrochemistry on the renewables thread, developed by a young lady from here in NS out of Dal with an MIT startup. Seems a lot of people believe we will have an abundance of solar for 9 months of the year, if we build for the troughs and not the peeks, build out solar for December, panels are cheaper than batteries so storage can be kept to a minimum, make cement instead of hay while the sun shines, Ammonia too...

 

[DIY-HP-LED]

Iirc the projected competing processes are not commercial.

The bigger question is where to put the CO2.
Deep-ocean injection is a no-go as marine ecologies are already taking an acidification hit.
Maybe pumping it into old petroleum domes. They should hold together for a century or two.

From what I can gather those guys in Australia with the electrochemical ammonia process are at the stage where a few local farmers might be testing shipping container sized units that are supposed to produce tons of ammonia.

 

[cannabineer]

From what I can gather those guys in Australia with the electrochemical ammonia process are at the stage where a few local farmers are testing shipping container sized units that are supposed to produce tons of ammonia.

Yes but concrete.

 

[OldMedUser]

Hope all the fine folks in Texas have their gensets ready as the polar vortex is headed their way. -36C here tonight and Saturday is supposed to be colder so we might break our old record of -38.1 set here Jan. 15 2020.

I've had a rotten cold or something all week and have to go to town tomorrow no matter what so I'll be wearing a mask to protect the townsfolk from my nasty germs.

 

[Dorian2]

It's as simple as that.