Progress on Climate Change Policies and Future Plans

Where We Stand: the Problem Continues

 

Source: https://www.iea.org/reports/co2-emissions-in-2022

 

 

Source: https://www.iea.org/reports/co2-emissions-in-2022 

 

Our Recent Efforts

I think we've been moving federal government policies in the right direction, but it's been slow. With the IRA there is more assistance for EVs, reduced taxes for energy-saving appliances and use of photo-electric cells in solar panels and for wind energy. These will all gradually replace carbon-based energy systems.

Clearly, we've been addressing the Transportation Sector with efforts to assist EVs. We've been trying to address the Power Sector by pushing along Wind and Solar Power production, improvements to the grid, and promotion of large-scale batteries. We've addressed the Buildings Sector (for quite a long time) by promoting energy-conservation in construction materials and techniques and with the HVAC systems. Furthermore, we've done similar things for the residential construction industry, though standards for construction have largely remained local. Still, electricity production by power plants using coal remains a huge problem. The improved price-comparison for energy sources favors wind and solar, so we must promote that. Some other sources such as tidal power may eventually be part of the picture, but its adoption has been slow due to technical issues.

 

Source: https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy23osti/85332.pdf

 

Grid-Scale Energy Expected to Grow

Texas Power-Grid Battery-Storage Growing

A related issue is the location of the materials used in the latest battery technologies.

 

Source: https://www.isi.fraunhofer.de/content/dam/isi/dokumente/cct/2023/abt-roadmap.pdf

 

We might include more nuclear if the latest technologies there prove to be safe, cost-efficient, and reliable. We don't want to start something like that and then have to do a turn-around because of failures.

Those can supplant carbon-based fuel for energy sources. Still, there are other issues. Not all countries are able to do these things to help protect the entire planet. Growing poorer countries won't want to do it. Even China has mixed feelings about limiting growth, so they do some Renewable Energy things, but they still burn coal. There are also some other sources of CO2. The making of concrete is one of the worst because we use so much concrete in our modern world. Can we make it without so much production of CO2? I have hardly discussed his part of our project to rid ourselves of too much CO2.

 

What's Next

Ars Technica Article: Renewable energy is now cheap—what’s next?

    “A decade ago, our present renewable energy situation was unimaginable. Most projections had wind and solar as niche players on the electric grid due to their relatively high cost. In the US, the reality is anything but. Combined, wind and solar have now passed coal; throw in hydro, and they've passed nuclear, too. In most areas of the country, they're now far and away the cheapest means to generate electricity; the same holds true for most locations around the world.
Despite the changed economics, most countries have fallen behind on their climate pledges, and fossil fuels aren't being pushed off the grid fast enough to get us back on track. While the entire globe is suffering the consequences of climate change, the factors that are keeping renewables from reaching their full potential vary from country to country. What should we be doing to get past these roadblocks?”

In that article it's made clear we have to put our technologies to work and for that we have to consider government policies (sticks & carrots) to encourage it and government projects where it can be enforced. Let's lean our shoulder into this and begin pushing known technologies that are already cost-effective!

 Cost of Batteries 

One of the most essential will be the use of batteries to store all kinds of energy for use overnight and during times when we aren't getting new energy from wind or solar sources. Not having it ready to go on a very large scale can hold up greater development and use of our existing price-effective technologies. Let's push what we've got and work to eliminate barriers to completion of the picture.

 

Other Issues

Video on some of these non-EV issues

It's time to start looking more at eliminating, reducing, replacing, ways to do things that produce too much CO2. 

 

John's Songs

 

Wichita Lineman 

 

Confessin' (Louis Armstrong style)

 

Daddy

Sweet Soul Lulaby

University Financial Woes

Thanks, Kathy. That's a good article (link below).

There are a lot of things happening in the educational field, and not all are the result of the pandemic or political leadership of the state. Just as we're seeing the wholesale purchase of properties by investment firms that ends up driving rents up, there are other effects from a change in demands by students and future employers when technologies and international trade changes their worlds. There is also a huge shift away from higher education among young men. It's a complicated picture.

We already knew the Democrats in Washington were looking at higher-education costs as an issue they could address, and now Pres. Biden is trying to mitigate the effects on the economy caused by long-term educational debt, which drains money away from consumption. When you combine all these factors, the resulting mosaic is not easy to solve.

It's obvious they can look at both state and international sources of students and see the ups and downs ahead of time. That doesn't stop all the petty tyrants from trying to build bigger castles. So, the first part of the solution has to be administration and a reality-check on the numbers of future students and monies which will become available. As simple as that sounds, we live in times when political (and other) agendas can make it seem complicated. While it may sound draconian to shut down this and that, consider that some of this and that may be brand spanking new, rather than 30-year-old buildings or programs. It might just be pulling in the horns, back to real sound levels. Second, views of what a modern university should be doing are evolving, and it may be useful to reduce this thing, even as that thing holds steady or grows. Discussions on the Internet reflect that POV all the time. Should a college teach to some profession, or should it be a more general Liberal Arts type school? Should there be more sports or less? Should they recruit students to increase its size or should there be an ideal student body size?

Shaping a corporation has many similar questions and isn't very simple if it isn't a one-dimensional organization. How much money can schools expect from political bodies like the state legislature or the federal government? That is a very difficult question to answer, but they've somehow managed it in the past. Even our local school system has its ups and downs, some due to inept or criminal management. Leadership is a primary issue. Do the people of the state want all this? Has anyone even asked them what they want?

Start by answering some fundamental questions, and a lot that follows will be easier and more useful.

On 8/15/23 15:51, Kathy wrote:

This article from the Chronicle of Higher Education explains how WVU ended up so far in debt.

https://community.wvu.edu/~jokatz/ChronStoryWVU.pdf

 

Kathy

Monarchy, Wealth, Republican Crazies, and Émeutes

The man who was advised by an AI ChatBot to kill Queen Elizabeth with a crossbow may have been crazy, but in 1776 Americans would have killed the King of England without regret. The main difference was that the Americans had a large army and support from France. George Washington may have looked silly by today's standards, but in his day he was not considered a crackpot.

Man Caught with Crossbow in Windsor Castle Admits Trying to Harm the Queen

It's not unreasonable for the poor to seek an uprising against the wealthy and powerful. In fact, it is the only reasonable thing to do. We often adore the stories like Les Misérables or Dr. Zhivago (fiction) around the Russian Revolution. But, in those cases it wasn't about dividing the wealth and then carrying on, it was about devising a new political-economy system which would allow more people to have a chance at benefiting. In Russia and Cuba, the more extreme idea of equal wealth for all has failed. In China, they are trying to give more economic opportunity, but political power is still very controlled. In the "Western" world, the wealth gap which has developed is worrying. Will it cause revolution, unrest, violence? Well, it already has. Are the police shooting innocents in the street? Yes. Has the minimum wage increased to keep up with the growth in GDP or productivity? No. Are politicians doing enough to help their poor electorate? No. Are they at least doing enough to keep our Democracy afloat? Barely.

World's Wealthiest Individuals

Trends which go unchanged can be as dangerous as a single radical violent action. Would relations between Russia and Ukraine be better than this single violent war where Ukraine seeks independence and freedom? It might not seem so bad to the frog in the pot of warm water, but a trend is a trend.

In America, the trend is not good and the politicians who are easily bought off by a handful of magic beans (which will get them reelected) is not going to allow the trend to change. In fact, the Republican politicians who are most dedicated to helping the rich keep all their wealth are also the ones who do the least to benefit their voters. They seem to feel that keeping their voters poor and uneducated, not unlike slaves or ghetto-dwellers, is best to convince those voters that the big-government Liberals are their one and only enemy. So far, it's working. The rich are getting richer while everybody else makes little progress, rising as fast as unleavened bread dough.

Is it morally wrong to kill the oppressor(s)? Perhaps. It's hard to be certain. But, if there are millions who agree with you that the trend must be changed, then you can at least feel you won't end up with the wrong end of the crossbow. Is it wrong to "work within the system" to seek changes? Perhaps. It's hard to be certain. The peoples of this world who remain in monarchic political systems don't seem to feen bad about being in a warm pot of water if it doesn't seem to be getting hotter. Maybe their children will feel it's normal, or somewhere down the line one will ask why the water is so damn hot. "How much is too much?", that is the question.

Personally, I'd rather work within the system. I'm a bit idealistic that way, though I see signs that it may be a failing effort. The fascist-Right are acting out, and it's destructive with no idea of a better future. Who can say which kind of rational behavior (however crazy-looking it may seem in future generations) will be best.

And in the short-run, the wealthy get richer, the federal debt is over $30 trillion, George Floyd is dead, innocents in Baltimore were killed, there are shootings everywhere and no end to it in sight. And in the short-run, people are not happy with their employers. Just today, I mentioned to a check-out clerk at a grocery store that I was disappointed in the company and the clerk said, "I'm disappointed every day when I come to work".

If people aren't overly angry at the super-rich or at their employers or at their elected officials, then what will make them angry enough to vote differently or to do violence? What is the breaking point?

Émeutes en la France

https://www.phillipscollection.org/collection/uprising-lemeute