Originally Posted by
Hugh Cow
Some of the reasons why I am pessimistic about any action to really address climate change.
China builds the equivalent of all Australias' total coal fired electricity generation every year. Australian mining produces more CO2 emissions than the entire Australian domestic economy. Shutting down mining would have huge ramifications for manufacturers in countries that benefit from that mining not just Australia.
Norway is held up as a model for sustainability having the largest take up of Electric cars per capita, yet they are large exporters of fossil fuels that emit CO2 in other countries.
Electric cars require massive amounts of steel and copper again producing emissions in other countries, and battery packs use large amounts of Lithium which then produces CO2 emissions in other mineral rich countries such as Bolivia and Australia, in other words robbing Peter to pay Paul, or reducing their emissions at the expensive of increasing them in other countries.
When you buy a new car to replace your petrol/gas guzzler, approximately 28% of total car emissions (see TEWI) are produced during car manufacture. If your petrol/gas guzzler is on sold and not recycled there is no gain, as you reduce your own carbon footprint by shifting it to someone else, so in effect there is a net increase.
Germany has between 20-30 thousand tons of non recycled waste per year just from wind turbine generators alone.
"Green" energy uses a lot of rare earth metals that at present are very difficult to recycle from solar panels etc. These rare earth metals require a lot of energy input for extraction in mines, again just shifting CO2 emissions from mineral poor countries to mineral rich countries.
The internet is responsible for as much global emissions as the the airline industry. To put it into perspective you emit around 4 grams of CO2 per email on average.
There is still no solution to endless unsustainable economic growth, which will have to be tackled to limit emissions.
Meat production which is a huge contributor to emissions will have to be drastically curtailed in favour of a more vegetarian diet if we are to further limit CO2 emissions in the farming sector.
In other words you cant have your steak and eat it to.
They are just a few of the realities that means there is going to be a lot of unpalatable medicine needed to cure the patient.
I doubt the politicians have the courage to do so.
To further illustrate the point. One of the largest threads on TD is on climate change with endless graphs and the usual haranguing of climate deniers. One of the smallest threads is what are TDers are actually doing to reduce their own carbon footprint.
I would suggest that some of the worst carbon offenders are on TD if their flights in and out of Thailand etc are taken into account.
