Dr. Deborah Brosnan, a climate and ocean scientist, predicts that Earth could eventually become uninhabitable for humans given the grave state of the planet
Air Conditioning to mitigate climate change? That’s like dowsing a fire with lighter fluid.
And you think we’ll be able to out engineer the sun? In 250million years we will not be here guaranteed, and if somehow we make it it won’t be in any form we know as human.
Yes, I even once got a B+ in thermodynamics, decades ago. I was proud of that B+ – one of the hardest courses I’ve ever taken.
Yes, AC. It uses energy, adds heat into the total system, and you cannot fight entropy. However, you can mitigate heat gain in other places. You trade local effects for net zero global effects.
Simple example: AC running off of solar. It increases heat by decreasing albedo (solar panels are dark), but if you paint another area white, you can have a neutral effect in terms of total energy captured by the earth. But you can have a net zero heat gain and still have AC.
Obviously you’ll have a harder time balancing this equation if you’re using non-renewable energy sources.
But the fun thing is that all solar currently has a carbon cost associated with it. So as we’re trying to work our way out of this we’re also continuing to increase the carbon load. It’s a vicious cycle.
But the fun thing is that once we reach a critical point, it will go from having a positive carbon impact to a negative carbon impact. But we can never get there if we never start
But we’re not just piling more and more on the grid. It’s replacing something worse, and those things wouldn’t last forever anyway.
The last coal power station in the UK is due to shut down in a month or so. Within a year or two it will be demolished. Would we be doing that without solar and wind? No.
Just existing has a carbon cost. It’s our duty to keep it low.
Are you actually a scientist?
Air Conditioning to mitigate climate change? That’s like dowsing a fire with lighter fluid.
And you think we’ll be able to out engineer the sun? In 250million years we will not be here guaranteed, and if somehow we make it it won’t be in any form we know as human.
Yes, I even once got a B+ in thermodynamics, decades ago. I was proud of that B+ – one of the hardest courses I’ve ever taken.
Yes, AC. It uses energy, adds heat into the total system, and you cannot fight entropy. However, you can mitigate heat gain in other places. You trade local effects for net zero global effects.
Simple example: AC running off of solar. It increases heat by decreasing albedo (solar panels are dark), but if you paint another area white, you can have a neutral effect in terms of total energy captured by the earth. But you can have a net zero heat gain and still have AC.
Obviously you’ll have a harder time balancing this equation if you’re using non-renewable energy sources.
But the fun thing is that all solar currently has a carbon cost associated with it. So as we’re trying to work our way out of this we’re also continuing to increase the carbon load. It’s a vicious cycle.
But the fun thing is that once we reach a critical point, it will go from having a positive carbon impact to a negative carbon impact. But we can never get there if we never start
It’s all about scale and infrastructure.
But we’re not just piling more and more on the grid. It’s replacing something worse, and those things wouldn’t last forever anyway.
The last coal power station in the UK is due to shut down in a month or so. Within a year or two it will be demolished. Would we be doing that without solar and wind? No.
Just existing has a carbon cost. It’s our duty to keep it low.