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The Climate thread


Laxtonto

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On 3/15/2024 at 11:30 AM, Biff Tannen said:

Every time I go to Costco, I see the millions of plastic containers for EVERYTHING and extrapolate that out in my brain as to how much of that inventory is replaced every day and how many Costcos there are and all the other big box stores and how many plastic water bottles  are used everyday and it is all just overwhelming and we are fucked.

Or when I go to Wholefoods and see a mound of individual potatoes wrapped in plastic.  

The way our recycling works is that if there's one piece of non recyclable plastic in the bin, then everything gets trashed.  At work, in many buildings, just watch the maintenance guys dump both the trash and recycle baskets all in the same bin at night.  Basically, if you don't stay on people, they won't do right.  Which is exactly why regulation is needed.  Greed is a crime by biblical standards, and a disease, especially when a few begin to rationalize poison for profit.  

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5 hours ago, Mdhorn said:

The way our recycling works is that if there's one piece of non recyclable plastic in the bin, then everything gets trashed.  At work, in many buildings, just watch the maintenance guys dump both the trash and recycle baskets all in the same bin at night.  Basically, if you don't stay on people, they won't do right.  Which is exactly why regulation is needed.  Greed is a crime by biblical standards, and a disease, especially when a few begin to rationalize poison for profit.  

Why do you hate freedom? 

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6 hours ago, Mdhorn said:

The way our recycling works is that if there's one piece of non recyclable plastic in the bin, then everything gets trashed.  At work, in many buildings, just watch the maintenance guys dump both the trash and recycle baskets all in the same bin at night.  Basically, if you don't stay on people, they won't do right.  Which is exactly why regulation is needed.  Greed is a crime by biblical standards, and a disease, especially when a few begin to rationalize poison for profit.  

I recently read an estimate that ~ 10% of residential recycling materials are actually recycled, and ~ 90% just go to the landfill.  Great.  I would hope industrial recycling would have a much higher yield.

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I watched a doc on recycling in Germany.  Outside of Berlin I think.  It's a massive operation.  They have a drive up system.  Basically from there it's sorted into different dumpsters.  If they have furniture or electronics they have people to refurb it and resale it.  From there everything is cleaned and sorted and shipped to companies who can use it.  

I know this was just part of their overall recycling program but it was inspiring.  Plus they employee dozens and dozens of people. 

Makes me angry we don't have those types operations here.

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4 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

I recently read an estimate that ~ 10% of residential recycling materials are actually recycled, and ~ 90% just go to the landfill.  Great.  I would hope industrial recycling would have a much higher yield.

We've gone over this in this thread somewhere, but Austin is much higher.  Somewhere around 80%.  It all depends on how much each municipality gives a shit and what relationships they have with the companies that end up buying the material to recycle it.

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NYTimes travel piece about trying to raft a drying Rio Grande in the Big Bend region.

 

How Do You Paddle a Disappearing River?
Canoeing the Rio Grande near Big Bend National Park can be magical. But as the river dries, it’s getting harder to find where a boat will actually float.

I had barely unbuckled my seatbelt and was already wondering if I had driven six hours across Texas for nothing. A once-in-a-lifetime river adventure had seemingly evaporated with some disappointing news.

It was the promise of a four-day, 33-mile canoe journey in Big Bend National Park, snaking through awe-inspiring canyons on a mighty river, that had lured me across the state. My partner’s brother, Michael Stangl, an occasional guide with Hidden Dagger Adventures, had offered to take me on the Rio Grande, one of the country’s longest rivers, which stretches from central Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico. I had only previously visited Big Bend on foot, and I was excited to see it from the water.

The moment I pulled into Michael’s driveway in Alpine, Texas, after driving there from Austin last April, he told me: We wouldn’t be going through the park anymore.

 

Free link that's worth the click just for the photographs alone: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/travel/texas-big-bend-rio-grande-boat.html?ugrp=m&unlocked_article_code=1.fU0.3T0t.w_1KA_kLYDLx&smid=url-share

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1 hour ago, brakeman said:

image.thumb.png.32524ae756048e1d72b0a570aa15fcb4.png

cheap and clean energy.

I trained to become a solar installer in 2010 and it was known then that the price was going to continue to plummet.  I'm so glad the price is no longer a rational argument.

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On 3/22/2024 at 8:37 AM, jimmyjazz said:

I recently read an estimate that ~ 10% of residential recycling materials are actually recycled, and ~ 90% just go to the landfill.  Great.  I would hope industrial recycling would have a much higher yield.

That sucks. We fill up the bin each week, I really hope our community is doing more than 10%. 

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Here's a gifted link for @RomaVicta and anyone else interested in two projects (one in Iceland and another, much larger in Odessa, TX) geared toward carbon capture. It's a good read as it also discusses many of the issues surrounding the effort, including expense, effectiveness, and ethics.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/31/climate/climate-change-carbon-capture-ccs.html?ugrp=m&unlocked_article_code=1.hE0.C_vy.8xZNakjhVWGv&smid=url-share

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On 3/27/2024 at 5:19 PM, Biff Tannen said:

I trained to become a solar installer in 2010 and it was known then that the price was going to continue to plummet.  I'm so glad the price is no longer a rational argument.

I thought I read last week that we (USA) were against China flooding the market with cheap solar panels, for some reason. Struck me as an odd thing to be upset about.

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25 minutes ago, Post Oak said:

Get a rope.

 

Eight hours of benzene that was (if I read the paper correctly) 15 times the limit, and eight hours of carbon monoxide at 2500 lb/hour (limit=351.79/hr) among other things.

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27 minutes ago, troph said:

imagine how much more we could do if this was a natural issue not a political one. makes me so mad. my team doesn't care so I don't care. grrr.

We are dooming multiple generations due to this.  I'm sure they won't mind.

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Posted (edited)
6 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

We are dooming multiple generations due to this.  I'm sure they won't mind.

If they're anything like Uvalde, they'll continue voting Republican, even at the expense of their offspring.  Leopards faces person woman man camera tv whatnot.  

Edited by Mdhorn
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15 hours ago, Mdhorn said:

If they're anything like Uvalde, they'll continue voting Republican, even at the expense of their offspring.  Leopards faces person woman man camera tv whatnot.  

I hate to wish Midland ill, but if the wind was blowing eastward perhaps the resulting pollution lingered over Tim Dunn's 6000 sq ft place.

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On 4/1/2024 at 11:46 AM, BeardIP said:

I thought I read last week that we (USA) were against China flooding the market with cheap solar panels, for some reason. Struck me as an odd thing to be upset about.

Stat: In what amounts to the green-tech version of that “It’s enough slices!” meme, China is producing so many cheap solar panels that people in Germany and the Netherlands are using them as fencing, the Financial Times reported. Due to a Chinese manufacturing boom, the global solar panel supply is on track to hit 1,100 gigawatts this year, three times the current forecast. That’s driving the price of panels way down: As of March, they cost 11 cents per watt, half of what they were at that time last year. Now you can keep your neighbors out and save on your electricity bill at the same time.

https://www.ft.com/content/2ea6bf6d-04e9-453b-a35f-cd6431cfc7bf

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On 3/21/2024 at 10:55 PM, BeardIP said:

Amazon says its plastic packaging can be recycled. An investigation finds it usually isn’t. (Grist) https://grist.org/accountability/amazon-says-its-plastic-packaging-can-be-recycled-an-investigation-finds-it-usually-isnt/

Shit, I could've told ya that. Anytime there's something besides that sole material - like say a foam polymer infill in a paper envelope - it's not gonna be recyclable mainly due to contamination. And even so, most of the plastic that's taken in is too dirty to clean or separate and is just burned as a heat source, rather than landfilling a boatload of plastic every day

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