The Green Room

[PedalUma]

I had spoken about how some people want to plow the water instead of sailing. Ironically in the wee hours a giant Rodney Dangerfield yacht caught fire in the middle of town. The upside being one less gas guzzler. On the downside, it did make an oil slick. It is hard to tell what is burning in the photo but it is a 40 foot cabin cruiser!

 

[Catalyzt]

Hey, I just figured out something incredibly cool.

We often forget that it isn't just cars, trucks, and cabin cruisers that increase our carbon footprint-- so does Internet use, which accounts for roughly 4% of greenhouse gas emissions:

Do I emit CO2 when I surf the internet?

Internet use means energy consumption and, therefore, CO2 production. Information and communication technologies yearly account for about 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. And this figure increases by 5 to 7% each year!

www.energuide.be

(Note: Estimates vary-- some sources say an email emits between 4 and 50 grams of carbon, depending on its size, but it's a non-trivial number.)

It stands to reason that if we could use our wi-fi connections more efficiently, we would reduce our carbon footprint. Just like cars, trucks and cabin cruisers, Information Technology in the late 20th and early 21st Century development has been poorly regulated-- and "free-market" capitalism is desperately inefficient. The cream never rises to the top, and the turds always float, yes?

I became furious that I could not run my business, and my wife's, at 6 MBS internet speeds. My wife's IT guy kept telling us to get more bandwidth, that it was impossible for us to even function with less than 20 MBS -- ("You need a more powerful truck!")

But why should I? I knew that we could stream two different TV shows simultaneously, so we should both be able to run video-conferences simultaneously at 6 MBS-- technically, it had to be possible. Why is utter indifference to this inefficiency the default position? And so, I began a long troubleshooting process that took me several months. Was it Outlook that was the problem? Did we have a virus in our router? I kept checking browser performance under different conditions-- with one computer shut down, or wi-fi turned off, or email disabled, etc. Eventually I localized the problem to one of my wife's laptops, but it wasn't email, wasn't adware.

It turns out that Windows uses individual PCs to distribute updates to other PCs. This 'service' runs ALL THE TIME.

Here is how you shut it off. We also shut off updates for Windows Store Tiles or whatever, which should not (knock on wood) impact security patches, etc. Please note that the steps vary on different iterations of Windows 10, and we had to experiment to do this, but the steps involved are something like this:

How to Stop Windows 10 From Using So Much Data

Windows 10 is designed to be an always-connected, always-up-to-date operating system.

www.howtogeek.com

Damn, that felt good! Video is streaming fast as hell, can't wait till I fire up the video chat for work on Tuesday-- and check to see how much this actually impacts our data usage. Hey, I'm not crazy about Apple, either... but any day when I can cut my greenhouse gas emissions by planting my boot on Microsoft's throat is a really good day.

 

[Dionigi]

Wow-- thanks, I didn't check their policy. On the east coast, I would use it for the road bike, but it sucks that you can't reserve a spot.

I suspect I could probably sneak the Trek kit bike with a hub motor onto Amtrak if I kept the battery in a backpack, but I guess it would be a gamble.

It seems to be a weight and tire size. 50 pounds and less than 2” tire. Not sure if they care about the battery.

 

[PedalUma]

It seems to be a weight and tire size. 50 pounds and less than 2” tire. Not sure if they care about the battery.

Use a bike on the train with a removable battery that has an off switch. Turn it off and put it in a plastic bag and that inside a padded box. Two inches is wide enough for bike tires.
I get it about the carbon foot print of things like email or researching bike parts. But doesn't that use less energy than driving around?
Here is Rodney's Ride. I wonder if it was set by the person who burnt the crap out of the portapotty on the bike path?

 

[Mulezen]

A new energy hog in the form of digital mining (bitcoin etc.) is afflicting us…China has banned it, shouldn‘t we?

 

[Handlebars]

A new energy hog in the form of digital mining (bitcoin etc.) is afflicting us…China has banned it, shouldn‘t we?

Any self-respecting authoritarian would.

 

[Handlebars]

I'm curious. Does believing JFK's dead son is going to come back to life and re-instate Trump as President politics or just nuts?

Believing it is not talking about it. Since you're saying it, maybe both.

 

[Art Deco]

Hey, I just figured out something incredibly cool.

We often forget that it isn't just cars, trucks, and cabin cruisers that increase our carbon footprint-- so does Internet use, which accounts for roughly 4% of greenhouse gas emissions:

Do I emit CO2 when I surf the internet?

Internet use means energy consumption and, therefore, CO2 production. Information and communication technologies yearly account for about 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. And this figure increases by 5 to 7% each year!

www.energuide.be

(Note: Estimates vary-- some sources say an email emits between 4 and 50 grams of carbon, depending on its size, but it's a non-trivial number.)

It stands to reason that if we could use our wi-fi connections more efficiently, we would reduce our carbon footprint. Just like cars, trucks and cabin cruisers, Information Technology in the late 20th and early 21st Century development has been poorly regulated-- and "free-market" capitalism is desperately inefficient. The cream never rises to the top, and the turds always float, yes?

I became furious that I could not run my business, and my wife's, at 6 MBS internet speeds. My wife's IT guy kept telling us to get more bandwidth, that it was impossible for us to even function with less than 20 MBS -- ("You need a more powerful truck!")

But why should I? I knew that we could stream two different TV shows simultaneously, so we should both be able to run video-conferences simultaneously at 6 MBS-- technically, it had to be possible. Why is utter indifference to this inefficiency the default position? And so, I began a long troubleshooting process that took me several months. Was it Outlook that was the problem? Did we have a virus in our router? I kept checking browser performance under different conditions-- with one computer shut down, or wi-fi turned off, or email disabled, etc. Eventually I localized the problem to one of my wife's laptops, but it wasn't email, wasn't adware.

It turns out that Windows uses individual PCs to distribute updates to other PCs. This 'service' runs ALL THE TIME.

Here is how you shut it off. We also shut off updates for Windows Store Tiles or whatever, which should not (knock on wood) impact security patches, etc. Please note that the steps vary on different iterations of Windows 10, and we had to experiment to do this, but the steps involved are something like this:

How to Stop Windows 10 From Using So Much Data

Windows 10 is designed to be an always-connected, always-up-to-date operating system.

www.howtogeek.com

Good
Damn, that felt good! Video is streaming fast as hell, can't wait till I fire up the video chat for work on Tuesday-- and check to see how much this actually impacts our data usage. Hey, I'm not crazy about Apple, either... but any day when I can cut my greenhouse gas emissions by planting my boot on Microsoft's throat is a really good day.

Good for you. Bloatware is in every device you own, I'm sorry to say, and every bit of it sucks resources. However, be careful about internet usage numbers, like many things it's really only a handful of sites that have almost all the regular usage (and spy the most) plus the huge amount of resources used to mine bitcoin ...

 

[PedalUma]

"According to Stronghold Digital Mining, the company is now burning 600,000 tons of coal waste at Scrubgrass per year in order to run its Bitcoin mining operation. This information is public due to Stronghold's filings with the SEC, as the company plans to go public."
Sep 26, 2021
We can be democratic, have consensus, and reign in the rouges. Authoritarians do not have democratic tendencies. In the US early this year those with anti-democratic, authoritarian tendencies attempted to overthrow our democracy. That mob was lead by an insane mob boss. I had fun reading the Canadian book "The Madness of Crowds."

 

[Handlebars]

"According to Stronghold Digital Mining, the company is now burning 600,000 tons of coal waste at Scrubgrass per year in order to run its Bitcoin mining operation. This information is public due to Stronghold's filings with the SEC, as the company plans to go public."
Sep 26, 2021
We can be democratic, have consensus, and reign in the rouges. Authoritarians do not have democratic tendencies. In the US early this year those with anti-democratic, authoritarian tendencies attempted to overthrow our democracy. That mob was lead by an insane mob boss. I had fun reading the Canadian book "The Madness of Crowds."
View attachment 106851

barbed wire secret imprisonment solitary confinement and torture, for unarmed protestors waved in by police, in a tour led by official agencies, that seems appropriate, when lacking evidence for any substantial charges
...while city blocks were burned, people were murdered, and it was declared by the same authoritarians as mostly peaceful

 

[Handlebars]

"....

As it turns out, The State of Ignorance has the largest population of all!
.


"Coal refuse (also described as coal waste, coal tailings, waste material, culm, boney, or gob[1]) is the material left over from coal mining, usually as tailings piles or spoil tips. For every tonne of hard coal generated by mining, 400 kilograms of waste material remains, which includes some lost coal that is partially economically recoverable.[2] Coal refuse is distinct from the byproducts of burning coal, such as fly ash.




Coal spoil stones

Piles of coal refuse can have significant negative environmental consequences, including the leaching of iron, manganese, and aluminum residues into waterways and acid mine drainage.[3] The runoff can create both surface and groundwater contamination.[4] Because most coal refuse harbors toxic components, it is not easily reclaimed by replanting with plants like beach grasses.[5][6

Reprocessing​

Where economically viable, some coal miners try to reprocess these wastes. In more industrialized economies, this may include complex reprocessing,[7] such as fluidized bed combustion in power plants.

The burning of waste coal typically produces more environmental toxins than higher energy coals.[1] For every 100 tons of coal waste burned, 85 tons of toxic waste ash are created.[5] These piles are also vulnerable to fires, many of them igniting on their own.[5] There have been some attempts to use coal waste in concrete production, similar to the use of fly ash.[10]

By geography​

United States​

In the United States, most waste coal piles accumulated from 1900 to 1970 when processing techniques were less sophisticated.[11] The US has a longstanding inspection program of these refuse piles.[12] In Pennsylvania alone, there are over 770 such piles identified.[13] There are at least 18 coal waste burning plants in the United States.[14

 

[Handlebars]

That is true.
Satellites help.
View attachment 106689

You don't know the Earth's stated average surface temperature after decades of being incensed?
Why is this not surprising?

 

[Art Deco]

So the COP distraction is over. After a quarter century of these conferences, they managed to get the words "coal" and "fossil fuel" into the agreements. Yipee.
In another 25 years or so, the words "loss and damage" may appear, before Tuvalu disappears and a half million more people become climate refugees.
So back to our regularly scheduled thread about adapting to the climate.

 

[Catalyzt]

Use a bike on the train with a removable battery that has an off switch. Turn it off and put it in a plastic bag and that inside a padded box. Two inches is wide enough for bike tires.
I get it about the carbon foot print of things like email or researching bike parts. But doesn't that use less energy than driving around?
Here is Rodney's Ride. I wonder if it was set by the person who burnt the crap out of the portapotty on the bike path?
View attachment 106832

Bummer that the limit is two inches, but of course I'd think that with a 46-pound bike that has 2.2 inch tires!

Yeah-- without bloat, ads, junkware, crypto and the kloud-- as well as the worst offending websites-- research and working online has gotta have a much lower carbon footprint, probably even some shopping, too, though the delivery system makes that hard to calculate, and there are some really ugly labor issues.

Bloat also tends to strangle business, innovation and art; my Mac M1 is blazing fast for rendering music, and my rough mixes sound far better overall. Where it struggles is the memory leakage problem that show up when I'm online... because it's working so hard to load all the graphics and video in ads.

It's not authoritarian to regulate the crap out of business, and the populist-- and more recently, crypto-fascist-- idea that this is some kind of government overreach is often considered sinful to question-- even in 'liberal' arts colleges that are supposed to be such bastions of wokeness and radical leftism. If you're a student, you're not allowed to talk about this in class.

We have a National Electrical Code; it's what keeps us our houses from burning down. We have OSHA which keeps our workers safe. Who is keeping us safe from technology? Some smaller, and more civic-minded elements of the private sector are doing the best they can, as are a lot of the white-hat shareware nerds who have made more efficient operating systems like Linux more accessible to the rest of us, but they cannot do this alone.

Innovation is important, but it's only one small piece of the solution to the current slow-motion climate disaster. What we need is a broad suite of integrated solutions combining innovation, voluntary reductions in population, conservation, as well as enormous decreases in consumption and increased efficiency. (I know, duh-- this is not a new idea, but it may bear repeating.)

I get it that regulation can get totally out of hand, and fixating on a single issue is an easy way for us to find new ways to fight with our neighbors-- er, not exactly what we need right now. I don't have a problem with the guy who has a project ICE car in his garage that he takes to the track every couple of months (though I'd hate to live next door!)

I do have a huge problem with rolling coal, or driving Lambos at 90 MPH between stoplights, or street takeovers, or SUVs idling with the air conditioner for absolutely no reason. Anyone who does those things should expect to feel unwelcome and uncomfortable, and should expect to be harassed relentlessly by both law enforcement and their fellow citizens. How is this any different from lighting a cigarette in an elevator?

 

[Art Deco]

1."innovation, voluntary reductions in population, conservation, as well as enormous decreases in consumption and increased efficiency" and
2. Simultaneously, much tighter regulations affecting all the Internet giants without hurting shipping and delivery workers.

You, sir, are an optimist. We need many more optimists today.

 

[Handlebars]

In another 25 years or so, the words "loss and damage" may appear, before Tuvalu disappears and a half million more people become climate refugees.

Still about the Tuvalu fakery?
"

Climate change in Tuvalu​

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia​

Between 1971 and 2014, during a period of global warming, Tuvalu islands have increased in size, according to aerial photography and satellite imagery.[1] Over four decades, there was a net increase in land area in Tuvalu of 73.5 ha​

 

[Gordon71]

Still about the Tuvalu fakery?
"

Climate change in Tuvalu​

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia​

Between 1971 and 2014, during a period of global warming, Tuvalu islands have increased in size, according to aerial photography and satellite imagery.[1] Over four decades, there was a net increase in land area in Tuvalu of 73.5 ha​

You kind of left out this part: The sea-level rise near Tuvalu measured by satellite altimeters since 1993 is about 5 mm (0.2 in) per year."

 

[Art Deco]

You kind of left out this part: The sea-level rise near Tuvalu measured by satellite altimeters since 1993 is about 5 mm (0.2 in) per year."

Best guesses run anywhere from 50 to 150 years for the entire nation (500,000 people and 100s of islands) to become known only as a shipping hazzard in the Pacific Ocean. It's been inhabitanted through maybe a 1000 years of wet weather so far.

 

[PedalUma]

We have had big tides here today with about 2M between low and high. Our 'river' is actually part of the SF Bay. One liter = one Kilo. It takes about 10 Newton-meters (N-m) of energy to raise a 1 kilogram mass to a height of 1 meter. Since 1 N-m equals 1 Joule, that's 10 Joules. Power in general is defined as energy over time. Watts are defined as 1 Watt = 1 Joule per second (1W = 1 J/s) which means that 1 kW = 1000 J/s. A Watt is the amount of energy (in Joules) that an electrical device (such as a light) is burning per second that it's running or a generator makes. 100 liters on its way up could make a kW. Then on its way down another kW. That said it looks like this could be a cheap, easy and safe way to power things such a pumping fresh water up hill for storage. All by tapping the free power of the moon. It that looney?
A bear was just cornered in my town! https://abc7news.com/bear-in-petaluma-tree-ca-sonoma-county/11235544/

Bangladesh is a big concern.

Climate change in Bangladesh - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Art Deco]

Tuvalu has about the same population as Miami Florida, but Bangladesh has almost half the popluation of the whole USA. That's a lot of people to get flooded and need aid. That's why "loss and damage" got kicked down the road, I suspect.