Vivaldi Social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
Vivaldi Social is part of the Mastodon network and is hosted in Iceland by the makers of Vivaldi Browser. Everyone is welcome to join.

Administered by:

Server stats:

7.1K
active users

Demand for renewable energy, particularly solar panels, is growing at an exponential rate. But the shift to solar, wind, EVs and other sustainable tech solutions has sparked an environmentally destructive mining boom and is itself carbon intensive.

Even as renewables boom, we’re burning more fossil fuels than ever, setting new records for emissions. High tech alone can’t save the world from catastrophic climate change; only massive cuts in fossil fuels can do that.

news.mongabay.com/2024/12/rene

Mongabay Environmental News · Renewables won’t save us from climate catastrophe, experts warn; what will?In 2022, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres declared that the “lifeline of renewable energy can steer [the] world out of climate crisis.” In saying so, he echoed a popular and tantalizing idea: that, if we hurry, we can erase the climate emergency with widespread adoption of renewables in the form of solar panels, wind farms, electric […]

@gerrymcgovern Cutting fossil fuels without having renewables ready to replace the lost energy will result in energy shortages. And we know from recent experience in Europe that energy shortages harm the poor the most.

The solution is to push more renewables. We are getting very close to peak emissions with our current approach. That will happen when the growth in renewables exceeds the growth in energy demand. At that point, fossil energy will be a losing investment.

AJ Sadauskas

@dan613 @gerrymcgovern The other critical long-term elements are building electrification and industry.

There *has* to be a ban on the installation of gas appliances in new buildings.

In existing smaller residential buildings, there has to be government support for swapping gas water, heating, and cooking appliances for electric.

In larger buildings, swapping gas boilers for electric heat pumps is more challenging, and often involves structural works. Again, government subsidies can help make it happen.

The most challenging piece is industry. But here, a strong industry plan and subsidies can transition heavy industry from toxic methane gas to green hydrogen.

It's challenging, yes, but it can be done.

@ajsadauskas @gerrymcgovern If we can install big enough air conditioning, in most places we can install big enough heat pumps. As you point out, it's even easier in new developments, where ground-source heat pumps become cheaper. We are just getting started.