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Cont: Global warming discussion V

Brad Roth on Medium:
Bob Park’s What’s New (Oct 10, 2025)
3. ARE WE AT PEAK DIRTY ELECTRICITY?
According to the environmental activist Bill McKibben, the world has reached a milestone: Global “solar and wind grew so fast that they covered all the growth in demand for electricity so far this year, with room to spare.” This means that when it comes to electricity generation from fossil fuels, we may have reached peak dirty. It’s too early to say if this represents a fundamental turning point rather than a statistical fluctuation or a local maximum, electricity is not the sole contributor to climate change, and we have to reduce emissions and not just flatten them out, but let’s celebrate this sign of hope anyway. McKibben adds “China is now exporting more clean energy than the U.S. is exporting dirty energy.” China may have its faults, but let’s give credit where credit is due: At least the Chinese government has not embraced antiscience and climate change denial. Go, China, go!
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Notice that dirty electricity in this case means electricity generated by means of renewables instead of fossil fuels.
 
Myriad said:
I don't think it does, in this case at least.
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arthwollipot said:
It's pretty clear that it means the exact opposite of that.
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Yes, you're right. I switched them around.
It should have been:
'Notice that dirty electricity in this case means electricity generated by means of fossil fuels instead of renewables.'
The only reason why I found it necessary to comment on it at all was that dirty electricity in this case didn't mean what Google's AI answers when asked about it:
"Dirty electricity" refers to electromagnetic disturbances in the electrical current, deviating from a pure sine wave and including noise, spikes, and fluctuations.
This is caused by the normal operation of electrical devices and can reduce the efficiency and lifespan of electronics. While some people associate it with health issues like headaches or fatigue, scientific evidence does not support a direct causal link for most of these symptoms.
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I.e. it is about the way electricity is generated: by means of fossil fuels ('dirty') or by means of renewables ('clean').
 
Another excellent video from Not Just Bikes about the infrastructure of cities and how it affects not just the climate but also city life.
It is spot on in its criticism of many of the ideas that have been presented in this thread, too: That cities just can't be any other way than they are because .... whatever.
I'm so Sick of this Lazy Excuse ... (Not Just Bikes on YouTube, Oct 12, 2025 - 29:42 min.)
Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:19 Copenhagen (Strøget)
2:41 Fresno (Fulton)
3:53 The weather didn't make the difference
5:09 The wind in the Netherlands
6:08 Sunnyvale, California
7:13 The weather isn't a predictor of cycling
8:12 It sucks to film in bad weather
9:54 Fewer people cycle when it's raining (surprised pikachu)
11:05 You're not made of sugar (so quit your bitching)
12:25 It's not all the same everywhere
13:15 Infrastructure matters even more in bad weather
15:00 It builds character (suck it up)
15:58 Winter cycling
17:51 Ughh ... another requisite rant about ignorant Canadians 😫
19:59 You get used to it
21:41 Good urbanism in hot weather
24:31 The worst way to design for the heat
26:19 Concluding thoughts
27:41 Outro and Planet Wild
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I don't know what this guy's profession is, but he excels in combining theoretical knowledge of city planning and ecology with common sense and his own practical experience from having lived (and not least commuted) in different kinds of cities in both Europe and North America.
A must-watch video for all Americans and Canadians.

ETA: I didn't expect that there was a Wikipedia page about Not Just Bikes and the guy behind it, Jason Slaughter.
 
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From the Trump's Second Term thread:
Andy_Ross said:
Generators
Trump: "I said, 'You can build your own electric generating sources,' and honestly some of the people in this room, they're building electric generators that are so far beyond anything that's ever been built before. They're using nuclear, they're using oil and gas, they're using coal as a backup."
https://twitter.com/x/status/1983193055327916234
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Infrastructure:
The REAL reason Trump is attacking public transit (YouTube short, 2:26 min.)
Working people already feel forced to use private vehicles. 80% of people who primarily used cars as their mode of transportation have "no choice but to drive as much as they do."
Trump's strategy is simple: eliminate public transit options so that working people have no choice other than the one that's most profitable for his industry allies. They are juicing people for as much as they can. Fuel, maintenance, repairs, registration fees, insurance ... it all adds up.
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dann said:
For the most part, what Lula da Silva says is evidence-based common sense.
Time to take science warnings seriously, Lula says at Climate Summit (Agéncia Brasil, Nov 6, 2025)
Lula warns world leaders of 'extremist forces' lying about climate (Reuters, Nov 6, 2025)
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Your comprehension of English is letting you down again, despite the point right there in the headline I quoted.

Whether Lula is right or not on facts, the idea that COP 30 will be about action is hilarious.

They've been going on for at least 29 previous COPs, I imagine, over the space of probably 30 years, and their peak achievement to date was a broad agreement to limit warming to 1.5C.

Which we've already missed....

www.livescience.com

It's official: The world will speed past 1.5 C climate threshold in the next decade, UN says

The UNEP's 2025 Emissions Gap report has found that global average temperatures will exceed 1.5 C (2.7 F) before 2035 — and this just days before the COP30 climate summit kicks off in Brazil.
www.livescience.com www.livescience.com
 
Your obsession with my language skills is grotesque.
So is your focus on that one sentence in Lula da Silva's speech.
 
Not just but also about the CO2 emissions from the the U.S. military:
Earth's Greatest Enemy - official trailer
A documentary exposé of the world's biggest—and most unaccountable—polluter: the US military. Learn the environmental cost of having a military Empire with Abby Martin.
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Currently on tour. See list of cities in the link above. Today in Washington, D.C.

US Empire Vs Earth (The Majority Report on YouTube, Nov 10, 2025 - 23:48 min.)
Abby Martin joins the program to discuss her new film, Earth’s Greatest Enemy which exposes the U.S. military as the world’s largest polluter.
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The US Military Is Destroying the Planet Beyond Imagination (The Jacobin, Oct 28, 2025)
Abby Martin’s new documentary feature, Earth’s Greatest Enemy, takes stock of the US war machine’s environmental damage, tracing a devastating landscape of destruction from poisoned military bases to melting Arctic horizons.
The US military is a behemoth that covers nearly the entirety of the planet, and the extent of the damage it is doing to the environment is difficult to comprehend. The military emits more carbon pollution than any other single institution and, depending on which estimates you trust, more than a vast number of countries in their entirety. As the world continues to hurtle toward climate disaster, the military is disproportionately responsible.
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dann said:
Your obsession with my language skills is grotesque.
So is your focus on that one sentence in Lula da Silva's speech.
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I miss my laughing dog emoji. There are few things funnier than defending one's use of English by using it incorrectly.

Well played.
____________________________

Meanwhile, Ben Jennings nails COP 30:

www.theguardian.com

Ben Jennings on Cop30 – cartoon

As talks get under way in Brazil, the Paris agreement’s architect, Christiana Figueres, says the absence of the US is good for Cop30
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
It might be a good idea if The Atheist started broadening his horizons a little. Trump's absence from the UN climate summit in Brazil may have been the best thing to happen:
At Brazilian climate summit, Newsom positions California as a stand-in for the U.S. (Los Angeles Times, Nov 12, 2025)
  • With the Trump administration absent from the U.N. climate summit, Gov. Gavin Newsom is positioning California as America’s climate leader on the world stage.
  • President Trump has rejected climate science, pulled the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement and canceled federal clean energy funding, leaving a stark leadership vacuum.
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At COP30, California Governor Newsom blasts Trump for 'dumb' US climate policy (Reuters, Nov 12, 2025)
  • Trump allowing China to 'dominate' clean energy, Newsom says
  • Newsom says politicians need to change climate messaging
  • California has the world's No. 4 economy
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GAVIN NEWSOM unleashes on US climate policy at BRAZIL SPEECH – full remarks (Diario AS on YouTube, Nov 12, 2025 - 3:09 min.)
At the COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, California Governor Gavin Newsom delivered a forceful address, targeting U.S. federal climate policy and positioning California as a global leader in clean energy.In this full-speech video you’ll see Newsom call out Washington’s absence, assert that “Trump is temporary,” and urge the world to pivot toward renewable innovation and climate justice.Don’t miss his most pointed remarks yet.
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Meanwhile, Trump is busy gold-plating the White House. Even many Republicans are probably relieved that he's not in Brazil blabbering about magnets and windmills.
 
68 degrees in Colorado Springs right now. It was 76 in Denver a couple days ago, shattering a 1954 record of 70 degrees. Forecast for Christmas is again for record temperatures. The mountain snowpack is abysmal, very little snow. This will almost certainly go down as the warmest December on record, with many consecutive days 20-30 degrees above average. Some are pointing to La Niña, but La Niña is pretty weak right now and is only one factor at play. I fear we have reached a tipping point and this may be the end of winter in the Rockies, a shift to absurd winter warmth that is gonna wreck havoc with the mountain ecosystems.
 
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