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Comment Re:UN also says that the ozone layer ... (Score 1) 142

As K. S. Kyosuke says CFCs are among the most potent greenhouse gases. Meanwhile the ozone layer is one of the most vital protective layers of the Earth. Without it land life would be practically impossible as UVA & UVB rained down on the surface. Life would be largely limited to the oceans.

Comment Re: Nukes are impractica (Score 1) 407

Who's going to pay for the nuclear power plants? Of the 5 plants that were under construction during the Obama administration one was completed, two were cancelled because of cost and the two under construction's costs have ballooned from around $7 billion to around $26 billion and are expected to come online in 2021 or 2022. The one that was completed was a Tennessee Valley Authority project that was something like 80% or 90% done after being started in the 1980s (I think). All they had to do was finish it off.

So find a way to finance them at a cost that can be competitive with gas, solar and wind and they can be built. It's true that if we started building them regularly like starting a new one every couple years the costs would probably come down some as experience went up but I'm not convinced that will be enough to compete as costs continue to drop with solar and wind. The only part of the puzzle missing is cost effective grid storage of electricity and there is a lot of work being done on that with a lot of different possibilities.

Comment Re: Nukes are impractica (Score 1) 407

Yes, we've been using some forms of solar and wind power for thousands of years. But as a practical replacement for grid electricity it's only in the last 10 years or so the cost has come down enough to work. And the cost of both of those is still dropping so there will be more demand in the future. The only problem yet to be fully solved is cost effective storage and that's getting better all the time too. I expect it to take a decade or two more to get there as the major source of grid electricity.

Comment Re:Here come the republicans to deny science exist (Score 1) 407

First off, new ICE cars will probably stop selling in about 2 more years.

No chance of that happening. The automakers wouldn't be able to ramp up the production of EVs that quick and the supply of batteries couldn't support that level of production yet. More like 5-10 years for that to happen.

Comment Re:That's not where the heat increases are (Score 1) 407

The actual absolute amount of temperature increase of the water is negligible, so it won't really affect hurricane/cyclone strengths.

Ocean surface temperatures have been setting records the last few years. The average may be small but the heat isn't always distributed evenly. In some of the areas where Atlantic hurricanes are found there have been surface temperatures 2-3 C above average at times. That does affect hurricanes.

Comment Re:Here come the republicans to deny science exist (Score 1) 407

It's much worse than that. Buying electric won't help - that power still has to be generated somewhere, and building those vehicles in the first place is very far from carbon-neutral. The real answer is to walk, or ride a bike (or skateboard, or whatever). And don't buy a new bike, use a second-hand one from somewhere. And if you live so far from your workplace that you can't, then move.

In the USA we have an infrastructure largely built around the automobile. That isn't going to change anytime soon. Keep working for the change you believe in but don't expect it to change at the rate you think it should. It just ain't going to happen.

In the meantime electric vehicles do help. Even if they draw their charge from a coal plant. The coal plant is something like 30% more efficient than an ICE automobile. And the grid is gradually getting more carbon free. I expect the rate of adding non-carbon power sources to the grid to increase in the future as they get cheaper and the effects of AGW become more and more obvious.

Comment Re:Here come the republicans to deny science exist (Score 1) 407

Why crash on the GOP? Look at how the left/dems are blocking nuke energy from replacing fossil fuels. We can do that rapidly, but the far left is stopping it. And their fear is not founded on science or logic. Just fear. There really is NO difference between the far left and right. Both hate science and logic.

The left are not blocking nuclear power (not that some of the don't try to). The Obama administration approved the building of four nuclear plants two of which got cancelled because of cost overruns and two of which are still being built at nearly 4 times their original cost. The problem is the financial industry won't touch them without massive government loan guarantees. Fix the problem of building them on time and on budget (with maybe 25% wiggle room) and you might see some more action. But they still have to compete on the cost of the electricity they produce with natural gas, solar and wind which is difficult.

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