42 sats \ 8 replies \ @0xbitcoiner 26 Jun \ on: Banning Fossil Fuels Will Make Heat Waves More Dangerous, Not Less econ
I don't understand how the banning fossil fuels makes heat waves more dangerous. I couldn't find any recent data, but from what I've seen, the percentage of fossil fuels used in homes seems to be small.
It not only deals with baseload power like people have commented but yesterday there was even an article about how burning fossil fuels has a super ironic effect and that is global cooling at the same time. The air pollution which it causes off set between 40 and 80% of the warming caused by greenhouse gases (think the cloud creation and how those particles reflect light).
We have already seen the effect of removing sulfur from marine gas oil. Sulfur was huge in seeding clouds over the ocean and the leading theory behind the ocean rapidly warming so much last year goes to that was the first year internationally sulfur fuel was illegal/phased out. It wasn't expected to have that effect but now NOAA and other leading ocean researchers believe that might have played a huge role because cloud coverage suddenly plummeted.
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That's a great point. Although, my guess is the additional health costs from that pollution outweighs the hypothetical costs of that foregone heat.
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Its a big catch 22 ideally you would prep for heat while weaning off but that isn't what is really happening so a lot of people are going to suffer/die from heat related issues while also to some extent still suffering from pollution.
While the marine industry/policy makers wont go back and flip their choice I bet they wish they did. With the oceans heating up so fast not only is it putting ungodly pressure on fisheries but it is supercharging hurricanes and typhoons which themselves deal crazy amounts of death and destruction.
I am sure there is a middle ground but I am not sure where it is.
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But if the goal is to avoid heat-related deaths, the worst thing to do is ban fossil fuels. Fossil fuels, through technologies like air conditioning and refrigeration, make us safer from heat waves like those experienced last week.
Cheap baseload power makes these technologies affordable for many people.
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Does the article refer to air conditioning in fossil fuel cars? I'm not sure about the US, but here air conditioning in homes is all electric. Some have oil heating, though.
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The most affordable energy source for generating electricity is fossil fuels, in most cases.
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Alright, that's not the most common way we do it here in Europe, but you're right. Thanks for the clarification.
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Right, but your electricity is very expensive. The developing world (where they have heat waves) can't afford to run AC at European energy prices.
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