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:
How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world:
Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:
Anti-science, inactivism, and unsupported conspiracy theories are not ok here.
My work is trying to engineer a design /plan for electric school busses connected to the grid.
They are only used for 4-6 hours a day and are stationary the rest. Perfect resource to keep plugged into the grid and help stabilize demand. Our initial study shows they could potentially pay for themselves, but at the very least subsidize their own cost quite significantly.
Given that they're stationary for so long, doesn't that make a compelling case for batteries? Surely vehicles in continuous use benefit more from being connected to the grid. Forgive me if this is naive!
They need enough battery power to do their rounds. Outside that however, that same battery can act as a power bank to the mains. Effectively you can buy electricity when it's momentarily cheap, and sell it back when the price spikes. So long as it's charged for the next run, it's fine.
This provides buffering to the system for intermittent sources e.g. solar, as well as making money from idle busses.
Ohhh I see. I was imagining busses somehow powered by a rail/cable at all times lol, which in hindsight doesn't make any sense. The reality is very cool! Thanks for sharing.
I hate school busses so much. The town should have a bus system. The whole line up of busses at schools puts pollutants all over kids going home. Every single day.
Lots of people all going to the same place at the same time makes a dedicated bus route for it useful. The problem is the use of fossil fuels, not the use of a school bus.
How do rural children get to school then?
Still a bus! Yeah I can see why that might be better as a school bus.
Bike, tractor, dirt bike, atv, bull dozer... you know, the normal ways.