Cont: Global warming discussion V

[dann]

By "the poor" do you mean the 10%?
Around here, people don't ride bikes because they don't want to. Despite hundreds of kilometers of AAA bike lanes being built for them. Don't get me wrong here, I quite enjoy having these nice new bike lanes all to myself and, to be honest, sometimes I even get a little miffed when I see someone else riding on MY road.

Yes, we've heard that story before, but you made the mistake of telling us how you were hit by a car (or was it cars?) and have since then given up on bicycling.

Why Canadians Can't Bike in the Winter (but Finnish people can) (Not Just Bikes, Jan 25, 2021 – 15:13 min.)
When talking about bicycle infrastructure in Canada, the number one excuse I hear is "winter." Many Canadians see the cold and snow as a fundamental barrier to year round cycling. But one city, Oulu in Finland, with winter weather worse than most Canadian cities, shows that winter cycling has nothing to do with the weather, and everything to do with safe cycling infrastructure.

I guess I need to post this again:

Copenhagen has taken bicycle commuting to a whole new level (Los Angeles Times, Aug 8, 2019)
Soren Jensen sold his car six years ago and joined the rivers of rolling humanity who bicycle through Copenhagen every day. He quickly lost about 50 pounds on his hour-a-day bike commutes, while saving time and a small fortune.
“I had a Mercedes but it sat in the garage all the time because it was so much easier to get everywhere by bike,” said Jensen, a 51-year-old who works in a downtown investment bank. He got rid of the car, which was costing him about $500 a month, after moving from the suburbs to the city and finding that he didn’t need it anymore.
“I don’t miss it at all,” the 6-foot-7 Jensen added before setting off on the ride home on a warm summer evening. He said he’d been looking forward to it all afternoon. “The hour on the bike is time I don’t have to spend in a gym. I got healthier and look forward every day to all that fresh air. Life’s good.”

And with electric cars being "96.3% of all new car purchases," as mentioned in post 2,304, the air is only getting fresher.

What makes Copenhagen the world’s most bicycle friendly capital? (VisitCopenhagen, April 2020)
(As I've mentioned before, it's possible that Amsterdam is better. It's been a long time since I was there. According to Not Just Bikes, it is.)

And as for stupid excuses (especially Canadian ones) for not riding a bike and/or not creating bike-friendly infrastructure, there's another Not Just Bikes video from last year:
I'm so Sick of this Lazy Excuse (for bad cities) (Oct 12, 2025 – 29:42 min.)

13:15--> What’s often misunderstood is how the infrastructure, or lack thereof, also influences people’s travel behaviours in bad weather.
For example, this paper studied the effect of weather on travel patterns in Toronto. Unsurprisingly they found a drop in cycling during cold and rainy weather, but they also found confusing differences by age and gender.
Having lived several years in both cities, I can confidently say that I have no problems riding a bicycle in dark, rainy weather in Amsterdam, but I will always avoid riding a bicycle in the exact same weather in Toronto.
In Amsterdam, it’s always safe to ride a bicycle. There are protected bicycle lanes on all major roads, most neighbourhoods have traffic calming, and the routes taken by cars and bicycles have been separated, so there are far fewer interactions between cars and bicycles in general.

 

[Stout]

And yet China was never anywhere near Australia, Canada and the USA in this respect.

Was that supposed to be some sort of counterpoint to my claim that China is still constructing coal plants? America building coal plants, bad. China building coal plants, ????.

Yes, Buy Nothing Day is the kind of impactless gesture that even mass media can embrace, pretending that it is consumption of goods and not the way in which those goods are produced that's the problem.

Agreed. It would be nice if everything was made locally by unionized labour but...then the poor (not the 10%) could only afford three dolls and 5 pencils. We NEED that underpaid third world slave labour force to keep the consumer dream alive.

Because nothing says Radical Left and Antifa like giant inflatadsble halloween decorations!

You can get a huge black pumpkin. Nothing says radical like a pumpkin wearing black bloc clothing. Kind of like spray painting your Christmas tree black and hanging it from the ceiling upside down. Take that normies!

Yes, we've heard that story before, but you made the mistake of telling us how you were hit by a car (or was it cars?) and have since then given up on bicycling.

Your misremembering, or making stuff up, hard to tell. True, I hit a car but the only thing I gave up was to swap a road bike for a mountain bike so I'd have more "interesting" terrain to explore on my daily commute. Plus, I look really hot in spandex, it would be a shame to deprive the world of that.

I did see a bicycle using our fancy lanes today, so that's a win I suppose.

 

[novaphile]

I'm about to upgrade my 1.5 kW solar system to a 6.0 kW solar system, so there is that.

BTW I rode a bicycle to work in Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide (Canberra was the nicest because of the extensive network of bicycle paths) for about 15 years in total.

In all three places, I saw plenty of other cyclists during the commute.

Are you riding during the week after everyone has already gone to work?

 

[The Atheist]

A little Karma headed to Texas as a heat dome builds over southern USA.

I do hope their power grid copes with the excess demand for power while keeping 400 data centres going.

 

[dann]

Your misremembering, or making stuff up, hard to tell. True, I hit a car but the only thing I gave up was to swap a road bike for a mountain bike so I'd have more "interesting" terrain to explore on my daily commute. Plus, I look really hot in spandex, it would be a shame to deprive the world of that.

No, I'm not misremembering. My memory is fine.
However, it's possible that I misunderstood you when you wrote that you were a hard-core cycle commuter in Vancouver:

And a whiny cyclist video about too many cars. Now what was I saying about people wanting cars over bicycles? The situation on the ground speaks for itself. I was a hard core cycle commuter in Vancouver for 12 years and I never got hit. OK maybe once but it was partly my fault. Cyclists have to learn the paying attention thing and get out there and turn the pedals rather than beaking off about how scary things are.

As I have mentioned before, riding a bike in Denmark is an everyday occurrence. Bikes are practical means of transportation, so we rarely dress up in spandex to do it. I never did. The many videos about bicycling in Copenhagen make it obvious.
We also don't describe ourselves as hard-core cycle commuters because there's nothing hard core about it. It's usually the most convenient way of getting to and from work or anywhere else within (and occasionally without) city limits.
Men do it, women do it, the elderly do it, kids do it, vegans do it, omni– as well as carnivores do it.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Musk is building dirty gas power generators, so the US really, really, really doesn't get to play the "coal in china " card, especially not when they decided to have their stuff build in China instead of in the US.

 

[Stout]

No, I'm not misremembering. My memory is fine.
However, it's possible that I misunderstood you when you wrote that you were a hard-core cycle commuter in Vancouver:

Misunderstood...and making things up. I moved out of Vancouver and my cycling commute became so unsubstantial it wasn't worth mentioning. 10 minutes, through a park, only on nice days because I didn't work in crappy weather, then it was WFH. Sometimes I couldn't be bothered with the bike and I'd just walk. Now that I live in one of these 15 minute cities I just walk to everything and pretty much only cycle recreationally. I did have to ride to my dentist's office a few days ago so it was nice actually cycling to somewhere.

I know all about cycling in Europe and this place, the cycling paradise that it is, isn't even worth mentioning in the same sentance when it comes to people travelling by bike.

 

[dann]

Making things up??? You need to get your lies straight!
First you said you were hit by a car, then you denied it and accused me of lying about it.
I got the impression that you had stopped biking. You said I was wrong, and that you had just switched to a mountain bike, but now you confirm that you have more or less stopped bicycling and only do it once in a while.
All your anecdotes appear to be made up to fit whatever imaginary fact you are trying to create – be it your claims about what you do yourself or what other people tell you.

A piece of advice: When you make up alternative facts all the time, depending on the impression you are trying to make, it becomes almost impossible to remember what you've said. You probably know about this from detective movies when the detectives ask suspected culprits and witnesses the same question again and again. It is difficult enough to remember reality. It's almost impossible to remember your own made-up stories.

I remember them better than you do, apparently.

 

[Stout]

Lol, I denied giving up cycling, that's what you made up. I didn't deny getting hit by a car.

Dude, I retired, I don't have to commute anymore.

Thanks for the advice, I'll file it in the appropriate file.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Given the vocabulary you use, I assume you retired at the age of 12.

 

[Stout]

France copes and seethes

France blames US for deadly heatwave | Ghostarchive

ghostarchive.org

Ipsos survey published earlier this month found that 78 per cent of French people believe that it’s bad for the environment and one in six respondents said they would rather suffer for the sake of the planet.

But but but....I keep hearing that the trick is to go buy the AC then complain about the fossil fuel corporations and politicians. Silly French.

Oh wait.

But last week’s record-breaking temperatures have shown that attitudes have shifted, with retailers across the country selling out of portable air conditioning units and videos capturing shoppers forming long queues and tearing at pallets holding units freshly offloaded from delivery trucks.

So much for that then. Easy to talk up an ecostorm but when push comes to shove.

And it looks like China is putting all that coal generated electricity to good use.

Infographic: Who Has Access to AC?

This chart shows the share of respondents in selected countries who have an air conditioner in their household (in percent).

www.statista.com

 

[dann]

France copes and seethes

France blames US for deadly heatwave | Ghostarchive

ghostarchive.org

But but but....I keep hearing that the trick is to go buy the AC then complain about the fossil fuel corporations and politicians. Silly French.
Oh wait.

I don't see why you suppose it's a trick: The immediate solution to health-damaging heat waves is AC running on electricity. In France, the use of electricity doesn't mean CO₂ emission at the U.S. level because France is very different from the USA or Canada in this respect. France relies primarily on nuclear and is rapidly expanding its solar and wind generated electricity, and the amount of CO₂ it emits is below the EU average.
CO2 emissions per capita (Our World in Data)
Besides:

“Dear American journalists and social media ‘influencers’: for days, some of you have been criticising and making fun of Paris because the city does not have A/C in every room...OMG, this is so rich!” wrote Audrey Pulvar, deputy mayor of Paris for international relations, on social media.
“As the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, you bear a significant amount of responsibility for global warming and the consequences we, in France, are experiencing. Your cities, which are 90 per cent air conditioned, are not unrelated to this.”

The French are much too polite!

So much for that then. Easy to talk up an ecostorm but when push comes to shove.
And it looks like China is putting all that coal generated electricity to good use.

Infographic: Who Has Access to AC?

This chart shows the share of respondents in selected countries who have an air conditioner in their household (in percent).

www.statista.com

View attachment 72858

The idiocy of the AI cartoon is obvious to people who know what causes global warming. It is completely in line with Stout's and Myriad's ideology.
As if the American consumer of electricity (and not Trump and his cronies) made the decision to let A/C run on CO₂-emitting 'beautiful, clean coal' instead of on wind and solar – or nuclear, like in France.

 

[dann]

Was that supposed to be some sort of counterpoint to my claim that China is still constructing coal plants? America building coal plants, bad. China building coal plants, ????.

I think this is real and not AI slop:

Chris Meder on bsky, June 30, 2026
Across Gobi Desert, autonomous tracked robots are transporting & installing solar panels with minimal human intervention, doubling installation efficiency. The energy transition isn't just about building more solar. It's increasingly about automating the process of building the whole infrastructure.

With a video, 17 sec.

According to another poster, it's neither as exceptional nor as autonomous as it might seem at first glance:

veryoddrequest.bsky.social on bsky, July 1, 2026
This is a lifting tool, a tracked one. Similar tools have been used for decades. It's autonomous in the Sense the controller guy with the remote is using it to lift and angle the panels which are fitted by the men behind it carrying impact wrenches and bolts

Even better, in my opinion. No extraordinary accomplishment. It should be possible to do everywhere.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Philippines leads the world in rush to solar as power prices soar

People in the Philippines are flocking to install solar power on rooftops and escape the burden of soaring electricity prices, making it the world's biggest spender on solar panels since ‌the war in Iran started.

www.reuters.com

The rooftop solar rush has resulted in $407 million in panel imports in the three months through May, a 145% increase from a year earlier, according to trade data from China, which accounts for most global supply.

The Iran War has led to a boom of exports of solar panels from China, with countries low on fuel scrambling to switch to renewable engery wherever possible.

 

[Stout]

I don't see why you suppose it's a trick: The immediate solution to health-damaging heat waves is AC running on electricity. In France, the use of electricity doesn't mean CO₂ emission at the U.S. level because France is very different from the USA or Canada in this respect. France relies primarily on nuclear and is rapidly expanding its solar and wind generated electricity, and the amount of CO₂ it emits is below the EU average.

Agreed, The article wouldn't have been worth posting if the French weren't trying to bill themselves as some sort of ecowarriors by shunning AC. Just wondering hers, but how often do they actually NEED AC in France? By need it I mean to stave off death and illness, not to simply increase comfort.

Living where I do, I certainly don't need AC. We haven't had one of these heat dome effects since 2021 and back then I was living in a place with a basement (1/2 underground) so we could just hang out down there but for day-to-day summer living fans, cold facecloths etc. work out just fine. I have my own reasons for not having AC which have nothing to do with saving the planet as we're all on hydropower here but if I lived in a hot humid place, which we have plenty of in North America, I'd probably just suck it up and live with it.

The idiocy of the AI cartoon is obvious to people who know what causes global warming. It is completely in line with Stout's and Myriad's ideology.
As if the American consumer of electricity (and not Trump and his cronies) made the decision to let A/C run on CO2-emitting 'beautiful, clean coal' instead of on wind and solar – or nuclear, like in France.

Wup, there's that TDS again. The US has had decades before Trump to get their nuclear act together. Canada too. But there's widespread opposition to this particular form of low carbon generation, Canada is currently talking about nuclear again, and will probably be talking about it forever.

So what if the cartoon is AIslop? That stuff is here to stay. I'm just glad that, at this point at least, it's identifiable as such. Remember all that complaining about Photoshopping, and before that airbrushing? AI is inevitable, we're just going to have to deal with it.

 

[dann]

Agreed, The article wouldn't have been worth posting if the French weren't trying to bill themselves as some sort of ecowarriors by shunning AC. Just wondering hers, but how often do they actually NEED AC in France? By need it I mean to stave off death and illness, not to simply increase comfort.

You still don't get it. The French aren't "ecowarriors by shunning AC." They're 'ecowarriors' by shunning CO2-emitting fossil fuels. And it was very hot in France last week. Even in (southern, but still) Scandinavia, we set a record: 37^o C. Germany, too, at 41.7, Poland 40.5, Slovakia 41.0.
Denmark was far from alone: The heatwave made weather history in several countries (DR.dk, June 30, 2026)
France had 43.8, and four little kids died of heat stroke. Several people died in Italy, several hundred in Spain. (DR.dk, June 27, 2026)
I measured 38 in my apartment, but the heat doesn't bother me as long as I'm not supposed to do anything, which I wasn't.

Living where I do, I certainly don't need AC. We haven't had one of these heat dome effects since 2021 and back then I was living in a place with a basement (1/2 underground) so we could just hang out down there but for day-to-day summer living fans, cold facecloths etc. work out just fine. I have my own reasons for not having AC which have nothing to do with saving the planet as we're all on hydropower here but if I lived in a hot humid place, which we have plenty of in North America, I'd probably just suck it up and live with it.

Some people suck it up and die with it.

Wup, there's that TDS again. The US has had decades before Trump to get their nuclear act together. Canada too. But there's widespread opposition to this particular form of low carbon generation, Canada is currently talking about nuclear again, and will probably be talking about it forever.

Carney is busy promoting Canadian fossil fuels, expecting to make a bundle by selling them to Trump's USA.

So what if the cartoon is AIslop? That stuff is here to stay. I'm just glad that, at this point at least, it's identifiable as such. Remember all that complaining about Photoshopping, and before that airbrushing? AI is inevitable, we're just going to have to deal with it.

AI is only inevitable until the bubble bursts. I hope it'll be soon.

 

[Stout]

You still don't get it. The French aren't "ecowarriors by shunning AC." They're 'ecowarriors' by shunning CO2-emitting fossil fuels.

Sure they are. Read the quote in post #2351. The one that starts with "Ipsos survey published earlier this month" where the French actually say their opposed to AC for environmental reasons knowing that they're burning very little fossil fuels to power it. Maybe it's too American for them?

I measured 38 in my apartment, but the heat doesn't bother me as long as I'm not supposed to do anything, which I wasn't.

This year, Our record is 33.5 with no appreciable humidity. Wife complained a bit but no biggie. The cat, OTOH, looked like he was suffering. Hard to tell as he's getting old but I did notice him lying on the kitchen floor in front of the fridge, right where the hot air vents out of, so ???.

Carney is busy promoting Canadian fossil fuels, expecting to make a bundle by selling them to Trump's USA.

Carny is talking about the Asian market but who knows, once Trump is no longer an issue things may change on that. Canada currently ships about 20M tonnes of coal (some of it mined in the USA) to Asia from the west coast.

AI is only inevitable until the bubble bursts. I hope it'll be soon.

I'll keep my fingers crossed but I won't hold my breath. We could be looking at mass unemployment in the not-to distant future. We already have a shopping mall art store selling AI art and they say it's doing really well. They even label it as such so they're not trying to fool anyone here. I was even think about buying one, coincidentally a Paris street scene, but I did something else instead. That half a figure on the right looks out of character and they offered to "fix" that for me but were the print not labeled as AI, I never would have known.

 

[Roger Ramjets]

Was that supposed to be some sort of counterpoint to my claim that China is still constructing coal plants? America building coal plants, bad. China building coal plants, ????.

Bad of course. But by itself this is meaningless.

In 2011 70% of China's energy came from coal. Since then the proportion has been steady dropping, reaching 53% in 2025. New coal plants don't necessarily mean increased CO₂ emissions.

World burned less coal in 2025, but built more plants over energy uncertainty

Coal use across the world continued to drop in 2025, but there was an increase in the capacity to burn it... Overall power generation from coal declined by 0.6% last year, but the amount that was on call if needed for power grids rose by 3.5%. Most of that growth was concentrated in China, where additional coal capacity is increasingly considered a backup option to ensure energy security. While China added 78.1 gigawatts of coal power capacity in 2025, its actual use of coal power fell by 1.2%.

This decline was notable as it came amid an overall rise in Chinese energy demand. According to the report, more than 90% of that increased demand was met not with coal, but with wind and solar. While China remains far and away the world’s largest user of coal, more of its energy needs are being met with renewables.

OTOH

While coal usage dropped at the global scale, a major outlier was the United States, which saw coal electricity generation rise by 13%. The U.S. was the only major economy to post an increase in coal usage — a direct result of policy intervention by the Trump administration and part of its larger rollback of clean energy incentives.

One county is on the right path, another isn't. In 2024 China produced 29% of the world's GHG emissions, so its efforts to reduce them are certainly more important than the US which contributed 'only' 11%. But every bit helps, and the US burning more coal doesn't. The US is the second largest GHG emitter in the world. It's also the richest country in the world, with much higher living standards and more technical innovation than China. That it isn't doing more to reduce fossil fuel usage is a disgrace.

 

[dann]

We already have a shopping mall art store selling AI art and they say it's doing really well. They even label it as such so they're not trying to fool anyone here. I was even think about buying one, coincidentally a Paris street scene, but I did something else instead. That half a figure on the right looks out of character and they offered to "fix" that for me but were the print not labeled as AI, I never would have known.

There is also the fact that the Eifel Tower is out of character. No Paris street offers that view of the Eifel Tower at that size. I haven't been to Paris (other than the airport) since 1972, but to make sure I took a couple of Google street views to make sure: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ue7rJKGUqzkDRAcU8
But I guess that's AI's artistic freedom. Much like the number of fingers, legs and arms in AI 'photos'.

Carny is talking about the Asian market but who knows, once Trump is no longer an issue things may change on that. Canada currently ships about 20M tonnes of coal (some of it mined in the USA) to Asia from the west coast.

Well, ...

Scott Robertson on bsky, June 30, 2026
Carney: The climate plan we inherited from the previous government was well-intentioned and well-suited for the times in which it was designed ... In the current environment, the old plan was an open opportunity for those people who wish to pull Canada apart, both at home and from abroad.

Conor Curtis on bsky, June 30, 2026
False, polling repeatedly showed Canadians AND Albertans wanted stronger climate policies: 69% across Canada, 62% in Alberta, supported government regulations.Climate policy was weakened to make a few Musk worshiping broligarchs, & U.S. oil & gas interests, richer:
www.dogwoodbc.ca/news/donald-...
Carney Under the Sway of the Broligarchs (The Tyee, June 24, 2026)
Build Canada’s advocates are wealthy, aggressively pro-tech and piling up wins in Ottawa. First in a series.

Conor Curtis on bsky, June 30, 2026
69% across Canada, 62% in Alberta, support government regulations to limit oil and gas companies’ greenhouse gas emissions.
Albertans align with Canadians on supporting stronger climate policies than what we have and - like other Canadians - oppose publically financing another pipeline.
Polls Show Opposition for Carbon Pricing Delay, Pipeline Subsidies (EnergyMix, May 27, 2026)
Two new polls show opposition to delaying the new industrial carbon pricing system, and to federal subsidies for a new fossil fuel pipeline.

Luke LeBrun on bsky, July 2, 2026
UPDATE: Mark Carney has cancelled his Canada Day plans in Alberta after extreme weather events in Ottawa ground prime minister’s plane
Carney’s trip to Alberta cancelled as Ottawa thunderstorms ground plane (CTV News, July 1, 2026)
Prime Minister Mark Carney has cancelled his Canada Day trip to his hometown of Edmonton due to thunderstorms in Ottawa.

Dr Dan Shugar on bsky, July 1, 2026
"In my judgment, that plan was not sustainable over the long term..."
As a Canadian environmental scientist focused on climate impacts, I have a very different opinion on what is sustainable over the long term,
@mark-carney.bsky.social
Carney says Trudeau-era climate plan was 'too expensive' and 'divisive' (CBC, June 30, 3036)
Prime minister lays out benefits of his plan to boost oil and gas exports, double electricity grid

 

[dann]

New thread: Britain is done with coal power