The Green Room

[Deleted member 18083]

I love sustainable transportation, however, having 6 children is certainly not going to reduce their carbon footprint and save the planet.

All of our environmental problems become easier to solve with fewer people, and harder – and ultimately impossible – to solve with ever more people. David Attenborough

 

[Art Deco]

solar electric power cheaper than coal... link

https://rameznaam.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Future-Solar-Cost-Projections-by-Year-to-2050-Naam-2020-1-800x487.jpg

 

[pmcdonald]

Here in Australia we just passed the tipping point in favour of new renewable + battery storage farms versus new coal plants. South Australia is well on its way to hitting its 100% renewable target, and their Tesla battery - the big one - is doing wonders to balance grid fluctuations.

Industry following the money will dramatically change the face of energy generation here in the years ahead as our aging coal plants reach end of life one by one. I just wish our conservative government would be a bit truer to their fiscally rationalist roots and quit subsidising a losing horse.

The shift - when it comes - will have a big impact locally. My home town is the largest exporter of coal in the world. 5% of jobs in the Hunter Valley are connected to coal mining - much more in some towns - and the royalties contribute 2% to the state budget.

It will be a painful transition, and one we should already have begun preparing for years ago with the evidence as it stands. Newcastle has done it before when our steelworks closed down, sending thousands out of work. We survived, and almost two decades on the city is more vibrant for it. It won't be fun, it'll hurt, but fear of transitioning will cause us to lose a lot of opportunities in the booming renewable and bio manufacturing space.

 

[Art Deco]

I feel for what you guys are facing. I'm in old coal country here in Pennsylvania, and the collapse was brutal.. Likewise I toured the last coal mine in Wales UK, now a tourist attraction...

 

[pmcdonald]

I feel for what you guys are facing. I'm in old coal country here in Pennsylvania, and the collapse was brutal.. Likewise I toured the last coal mine in Wales UK, now a tourist attraction...

Newcastle often looks to Pittsburgh as a model of transition.

 

[Art Deco]

I wasn't there, but folks in the area talk about losing a generation ...

 

[Art Deco]

Trying to link to the article for the graph above, having a lot of trouble with links lately.

Solar's Future is Insanely Cheap (2020)

This is part 1 of a series where I'll look at the future costs of clean energy and mobility technologies. This is a refresh of and expansion of my 2015 series on the future of

rameznaam.com

 

[Art Deco]

I'm just glad it finally cooled off. Now it's gonna get too cold to take a RV trip up the coast. You just can't win.

I would like to plan an overland route to Texas from LA, and do some mountain bike riding in AZ and NM.

Missed this. Fighting my tablet but I want to go the other way on Route 66. Now that I`m well beyond Age 66, I should get that off my bucket list. And the grand canyon when it's not raining and cold.

 

[Browneye]

We bailed on NM and TX - they are both shut down, and $1000 for gas was a non-starter.
We are in Phoenix, going on some MTB rides here, and a little sightseeing around the state.
Scouting out Payson and Prescott for a potential retirement destination. Hit Sedona again for scenic beauty!
400mile drive today to get here. Parked at the casino, damn refrigerator trailer next door! Dayum!!

 

[FlatSix911]

A lot of our friends are now retiring and moving out of state... Scottsdale Arizona seems to be a popular destination.
I was born and raised in California and plan to stay for as long I can stand it... hard to take the crazy mixed with the beauty here!

 

[Taylor57]

I was born and raised in AZ but it aint the same place since the CA exodus...

 

[Art Deco]

We bailed on NM and TX - they are both shut down, and $1000 for gas was a non-starter.
We are in Phoenix, going on some MTB rides here, and a little sightseeing around the state.
Scouting out Payson and Prescott for a potential retirement destination. Hit Sedona again for scenic beauty!
400mile drive today to get here. Parked at the casino, damn refrigerator trailer next door! Dayum!!

Sedona is very nice for a short stop of a few days. Exploring the red rocks and the town on bikes sounds great.I assume they are open as normal?

 

[Art Deco]

Anorher fire season but south of the border.

The world's largest wetlands are on fire. That's a disaster for all of us | CNN

The world watched California and the Amazon go up in flames this year, but the largest tropical wetland on earth has been ablaze for months.

www.cnn.com

 

[Art Deco]

All of our environmental problems become easier to solve with fewer people, and harder – and ultimately impossible – to solve with ever more people. David Attenborough

Ever more consumers... corporate speek.

 

[Art Deco]

Bandaids, bullets, and beans for your bunker ..

 

[Art Deco]

London version of pandemic refuge

$12.9 Million ‘Pandemic Refuge’ For Sale: Social Distance In Style In This Luxury Former Cold War Bunker In London

This Cold War relic in Mill Hill, northwest London, is a luxury home, which offers complete privacy while only being 8 miles from central London

www.forbes.com

 

[Art Deco]

I have some very good personal news that is also very good environmental news. Artificial biology is absolutely exploding in what can be done ... like electricity did.
Not just vaccine and medicine.
A team in NC has tested a new lifeform that eats a contaminant that our sewer system has been unable to treat so far. The hydro carbon molecules from fossil fuels like leaky gas tanks.
They developed a plankton ? that they fed on butane untill it grew big enough to go into the sewage treatment plant where it absorbs long hydro carbons from the water.
The very good personal news is that was my daughter's PHD project...

 

[Browneye]

South Mountain park, south Phoenix, has hundreds of miles of trails - rode about 15 of them yesterday. What a blast! Absolutely beautiful here.

BIL rides a Stumpjumper, tried out my Trance-E, big smile on his face! LOL.

 

[pmcdonald]

I have some very good personal news that is also very good environmental news. Artificial biology is absolutely exploding in what can be done ... like electricity did.
Not just vaccine and medicine.
A team in NC has tested a new lifeform that eats a contaminant that our sewer system has been unable to treat so far. The hydro carbon molecules from fossil fuels like leaky gas tanks.
They developed a plankton ? that they fed on butane untill it grew big enough to go into the sewage treatment plant where it absorbs long hydro carbons from the water.
The very good personal news is that was my daughter's PHD project...

Wonderful! Pass on congratulations. It sounds like a timely and innovative area to be involved in.

I heard a case study a few years ago that used a series of huge glass tanks and carefully selected vegetation (algae, etc) to decontaminate a water system adjacent to an industrial plant. The water would flow through the system, getting cleaner at every step.

The industry and government bodies had previously tried various artificial methods to clean up the water with no luck. Goes to show: sometimes we just need to check our collective arrogance as a species, get out of the way and let the many interconnected systems do what they do best - sustaining their existence, and by chance or design ours too, on this little planet.

Mushrooms - the largest living organisms in the world - also have remarkable powers to clean up contaminants in soil.

 

[FlatSix911]

South Mountain park, south Phoenix, has hundreds of miles of trails - rode about 15 of them yesterday. What a blast! Absolutely beautiful here.

BIL rides a Stumpjumper, tried out my Trance-E, big smile on his face! LOL.

Sounds like a blast... are you finding less EBike regulation in Arizona?