this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2023
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Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.

As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades: Graph of temperature as observed with significant warming, and simulated without added greenhouse gases and other anthropogentic changes, which shows no significant warming

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world: IPCC AR6 Figure 2 - Thee bar charts: first chart: how much each gas has warmed the world.  About 1C of total warming.  Second chart:  about 1.5C of total warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases, offset by 0.4C of cooling from aerosols and negligible influence from changes to solar output, volcanoes, and internal variability.  Third chart: about 1.25C of warming from CO2, 0.5C from methane, and a bunch more in small quantities from other gases.  About 0.5C of cooling with large error bars from SO2.

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Approval of new gas export terminals will lock in greenhouse gas emissions for decades, say activists, who are pressing Biden to halt these projects

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[–] Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

GHG emissions for just one LNG export project, known as Calcasieu Pass 2 or CP2, would be 20x more than Willow, according to an analysis by Jeremy Symons, policy adv. at EPA.

“The Willow project was a carbon bomb, but the CP2 project is a megabomb when it comes to climate change,” Symons said in an interview.

I don't understand why this is. Why?

My understanding currently is that Methane, when burned, isn't very polluting. But Methane leaking from unwatched rigs is super polluting. Sci American on Methane Leaks

Natural Gas is mostly Methane. So what's the difference that makes this worse than shipping LNG? -- because building infrastructure for it provides a wedge for gas companies to keep pumping well after the conflict is over. It "locks us in."

Finally, what's the proposed alternative? Sounds like Europe is facing this dangerous energy supply shortage thanks to the Russia Ukraine War, (this is what the gas companies want us to think) and short of installing heat pumps in hundreds of millions of homes, buildings, and districts in the past year, Europeans are gonna be burning natural gas to stay safely warm this winter.

European Winter Estimates

All European Countries Aggressively Installing Heat Pumps

Bloomberg: Europe Supply Heat Pumps for War

Bloomberg: New German LNG Terminal

-- So how does CP2 work? Who receives this US-Supplied methane and how?

[–] MrMakabar@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is scheduled to open in 2026. Right now Russia cut gas to the EU a year ago and gas storage in the EU is full again. With other redcution preparations, such as more heat pumps being installed in the EU and more LNG import terminals this means the EU is absolutly fine concering gas. Unless something big unforseen happens this winter that is. However every country in Europe is cutting down on gas consumption and has passed laws to that effect and the EU did as well. So over time EU gas consumption is going to go down even further. 2026 is just to late to do any good for Europe.

[–] Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 year ago

OMG. Well, that clears it up. This whole CP2 thing is such bullshit. 😂

[–] neanderthal@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

One plus side to record setting temperatures, heating demands are likely lower. A good stop gap is electric space heaters.