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Introduction
Introduction
Climate change affects every part of our lives: our health, our food, our safety, and the kind of world we leave to future generations.
Surprisingly, many experts say one of the most important things we can do about climate change is to talk about it. So below is a collection of things we can all talk about …
- Fun facts
- Where is the safety zone for the climate?
- What we can do as individuals
Part 1: Fun facts … really, who knew?
Part 1: Fun facts … really, who knew?
Master Republican messaging strategist Frank Luntz recommends best words for convincing people to act on climate change.
https://grist.org/article/the-gops-most-famous-messaging-strategist-calls-for-climate-action/
World's largest electric vehicle never needs charging (because of the way it is used).
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1124478_world-s-largest-ev-never-has-to-be-recharged
The Kentucky Coal Museum runs on solar power.
One solar panel can generate as much electricity as 10,000 pounds of coal.
Drive 100 miles in an electric car, or drive 100 miles using gasoline. Which trip uses more electricity? The gas-powered trip, because it takes a lot of electricity to refine gasoline, and electric notors are 90% efficient while gas-powered engines are about 25% efficient.
https://electricmini.blogspot.com/2011/10/it-takes-lot-of-coal-to-make-gasoline.html
You can save a bundle if you fuel your car with light from the sun. Tens of thousands over 25 years.
Heat pumps can deliver 300% efficient use of electricity, because they use energy to move heat. Traditional heating can never exceed 100%.
Stanford University civil engineers have a plan that will cut our total energy costs in half.
https://cleantechnica.com/2019/03/09/why-the-green-new-deal-cuts-consumer-energy-costs-unemployment/
The unit cost remains the same, but 58% less energy is needed:
20% from electric vehicles
15% from heat pumps
13% from eliminating energy needed to deliver fossil fuels
7% other end-use efficiency
3% industrial efficiency
It’s good to talk about these things because a major reason for resistance to action on climate change is concern about the cost.
Think of it this way: switching to a high-efficiency energy system is like finding a slot machine where you put in a quarter and get back 50 cents, every time.
Part 2: where’s the climate safety zone?
Part 2: where’s the climate safety zone?
In the span of just a few decades, the climate has undergone major changes, which are continuing. These include:
- Extreme rainfall in some areas
- Extreme heat
- The Arctic, Antarctic, Greenland, and glaciers are all melting
- Higher sea levels
- Changes in the jet stream and ocean currents
- p.s. fossil fuels pollute air and water, and alter the pH of the ocean
- p.p.s. scientists have documented about 500 separate impacts of climate change
The Safety zone for greenhouse gases is 350 ppm or less CO2 equivalent (it is now over 400 ppm).
http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/2008/TargetCO2_20080407.pdf
Imagine Wile E. Coyote from the Roadrunner cartoons, having just run past the edge of the cliff … that’s about where we are now. But there is still a window of time to reduce damages. Scientists have determined we need to cut emissions in half by 2030 to prevent irreversible damage.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/26/global-warming-climate-change-targets-un-report
What needs to be done globally:
- Massive reforestation
- Improve soils, reduce agricultural emissions
- Switch to clean energy and electrify everything
- See www.drawdown.org for more
Part 3: what we can do
Part 3: what we can do
See the Action section: https://sites.google.com/view/climate-updates/action
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