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6d6b73

949 karma · joined June 17, 2015

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6d6b73··on Smart thermostats inadvertently strain electric power grids
If the grid can't deal with thes thermostats turning on heating in many homes at the same time, how will it function when we add millions of electric cars to it?
6d6b73··on A new carbon capture plant will pull 36k tons of CO2 from the air each year
Let's imagine that you have a brilliant idea of removing all of the excess CO2 from our planet, and all you need to do is implement that idea to fix our problems with the climate.

- Food you ate to power your brain - CO2+

- Computer, Electricity, and the internet you used to research your idea further - CO2+

- Any phone calls, emails, chats with people that can help you implement your idea, fund your business, etc. - CO2+

- Opening business, paying all of the fees, opening bank accounts - CO2+

- Hiring people, renting offices, furnishing these offices with desks, computers, coffee makers, water coolers - CO2+

Now, after quite a lot of CO2+ work, you're ready to... start designing your CO2 sequestration plant.

- All CAD work, servers, electricity for light, internet, travel for you and your employees from home to work and back - all of that is still generating CO2 - CO2+

- All of the components you need to build that plant need to be first mined and shipped to your vendors - CO2+

- All of your vendors will have to build these widgets you need for your plant - CO2+

- All of that will have to be shipped to you, most likely be ship or air, and of course by cars. - C02+

- All tools like wrenches, soldering irons, and screwdrivers also need to be made and shipped to you - it all generates CO2 before your employees can start using it.

Now you're ready. You can start building your plant.

- You will need a lot of concrete - CO+

- You will need a lot of steel - CO+

-You will need a lot of copper, aluminum, and many more .. all of it is still CO+

In the meantime, your employees need to get to work every day, and they need their coffee. They need their lunches, internet, and electricity. You and your employees will travel a lot to do a lot of "businessy" things.. all of that requires energy, which generates CO2, and only a tiny fraction of it can use "clean" energy.

After a few months or most likely years, you have your CO2 removal plant ready. Yay... In that time, your idea generated tons and tons of CO2 and paper, organic(food, coffee, etc.), and electronic waste.

Now you have a grand opening, the plant begins operations, and you can start removing all of that CO2, your "simple and eco-friendly idea," from the atmosphere. Is it all good, right? You will remove all of that CO2 in no time, and soon after, start removing CO2 other people generate.

But wait. You need to operate this plant.

- maintain it by ordering new parts and replacing whatever breaks - CO2+

- employ people to run the plant. They need to travel to that plant, and they need to communicate, use computers, the internet, etc. - CO2+

- They need to get paid, so you need to start making money or beg for money from nonprofits or governments. All of that begging is best-done face to face, so you will have to fly all over the world - CO2

- roads to your "not so new anymore" plant needs maintaining - CO2+

- these computers your employees use get old, and your employees demand better company phones and new espresso machines. - CO+

- that free, safe, and CO2-negative geothermal energy your plant uses also needs to be maintained, and since your plant uses a lot of that energy, part of that CO2 this maintenance requires is added to your balance.

So that was my original question - when you consider all of the CO2 that these CO2 removal plants generate before they are even operational and all of the CO2 they generate during operation, how long before they are CO2 negative? My guess is never. All these "environmental" projects do is transfer billions of dollars from taxpayers to business owners. That's not how you fix the environment. That's how you destroy it.

6d6b73··on A new carbon capture plant will pull 36k tons of CO2 from the air each year
But they won't be able to. Industrial controllers, motors, computers are not made in Iceland. These items alone need a lot of CO2 to be made.
6d6b73··on A new carbon capture plant will pull 36k tons of CO2 from the air each year
Thats not the point. To design ,build and operate this plant you first need to use a lot of energy, tools and resources that are not carbon neutral. Before this plant is even operational it will be carbon negative.
6d6b73··on A new carbon capture plant will pull 36k tons of CO2 from the air each year
How many years before this plant becomes carbon neutral itself? I can bet that this is another waste of money and natural resources that will not help the environment.
6d6b73··on Regular blood donations can reduce “forever chemicals” in the bloodstream: study
It looks like the school blood letting is the way to health. And scientists laughed at people using leeches back in the day.
6d6b73··on Scientists Find No Benefit to Time-Restricted Eating
"a rigorous one-year study in which people followed a low-calorie diet between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m."

Isn't the whole idea behind time restricted diet that you don't limit calories, but shorten the time window in which you eat them?

6d6b73··on How did Europe become the richest part of the world?
Every country on the planet is a byproduct of exploitation and genocide. Some countries where just "better" at it.
6d6b73··on USDA announces plans to support innovative American-made fertilizer
What bothers me is that people like to be "eco" if it involves cool new tech, but they never consider a simple facts like the one that in most cases, it's more eco-friendly to use whatever you have until it can no longer be repaired than to buy something that's just few percent efficient. We're being wasteful but we make ourselves happy by packaging it all in "save the planet" box.
6d6b73··on USDA announces plans to support innovative American-made fertilizer
You can go to Central Park and see rats everywhere, and I don't see any compost piles there.
6d6b73··on USDA announces plans to support innovative American-made fertilizer
You really don't need much time to become a home gardener, and believe me that spending time outside digging in the dirt is a very health way to spend time away from the computer.
6d6b73··on USDA announces plans to support innovative American-made fertilizer
Yeah but it will take years for this to happen, and just replacing the trucks is only part of the cost - you still need to build new infrastructure to either charge with electricity or fuel with hydrogen. But wait! There is more - you need to pay millions to get rid of all the old infrastructure like gas stations that cities have, with old fuel tanks, distributors etc. In the current economic climate, I don't see how most of the cities could afford to do all of this.
6d6b73··on USDA announces plans to support innovative American-made fertilizer
How is that easy if there are currently on H-powered garbage trucks on the market and it will take billions of dollars to replace all of them?
6d6b73··on USDA announces plans to support innovative American-made fertilizer
I'm not sure how it is more effective to drive horribly ineffective diesel trucks to gather that waste and to dump it somewhere else, build a thousands of facilities to process this and utilize the methane safely instead of simply having a compost pile behind your house (where possible).
6d6b73··on USDA announces plans to support innovative American-made fertilizer
If you don't have patience to dump organic waste in a one spot outside of your house, how do you plan on doing the same with the waste bin provided by your city? Yes, I understand that this will not be possible everywhere, but let's just start doing this where possible, before we look for expensive and complex solutions to simple problems.
6d6b73··on USDA announces plans to support innovative American-made fertilizer
Why waste fuel moving organic waste to a central location when you can have it "processed" and used locally?
6d6b73··on Launch HN: Living Carbon (YC W20) – Trees that capture and store more carbon
The amount of money that will be spent on this science fair project would be better invested into planting the actual trees. The return on investment would be much faster and you still will need to plant these GMO trees anyway.
6d6b73··on Windows 11 Pro will soon require a Microsoft Account during initial setup
They need to switch everyone to MS Account because Windows 12 will require subscription. I'm guessing 5.99/month
6d6b73··on Starlink lost 40 satellites to a geomagnetic storm
Prediction: Elon/SpaceX will cause major damage to space exploration and astronomy before 2025
6d6b73··on Florida governor to investigate GoFundMe over Canada trucker donations
It's a protest not an occupation
6d6b73··on I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled)
Tesla constantly lies about its numbers. Even this week there was news from Australia, about inflated number.
6d6b73··on How big was the Tonga eruption?
Yes about .5deg
6d6b73··on Blockchain is not only crappy technology but a bad vision for the future
Bitcoin is an immutable ledger of ... kWh wasted on calculating hashes.
6d6b73··on China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’
Some people think of Bitcoin as a "store of value", comparing it to gold.. I have a question to people who believe that - What do you think will be the value of bitcoin in 100 years? Do you think your descendants would be happier with $50k* worth of bitcoin or with $50k* worth of gold in 200 years? How about 500 years?

*$50k bitcoin/gold if bought today

6d6b73··on Tesla pushes U.S. to boost fuel economy penalties
How about we push penalties misleading advertising and deceptive marketing that Tesla is know for?
6d6b73··on World’s Top Beef Supplier Approves Methane-Busting Cow Feed
And maybe these cycles are how the planet self regulates?
6d6b73··on World’s Top Beef Supplier Approves Methane-Busting Cow Feed
Steak vs chicken breast? That's not an alternative not only from the taste stand point but also nutrionally.
6d6b73··on World’s Top Beef Supplier Approves Methane-Busting Cow Feed
Pigeons poop. If there is a lot of them there is a lot of poop. Lota of pigeons-> lots of poop-> lots of methane
6d6b73··on World’s Top Beef Supplier Approves Methane-Busting Cow Feed
Can someone explain to me how our planet managed global warming when billions of bisons, deers, cows, sheep and other animals roamed our planet before? How much methane did flocks of pigeons generate if they were so large that they were able to darken the sky?
6d6b73··on World’s Top Beef Supplier Approves Methane-Busting Cow Feed
There are no healthy cheap and safe alternatives to meat.
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