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Topic: Weather, Climate, Environment, and Energy
(Read 531255 times)

FearlessF · « **Reply #9072 on:** October 30, 2023, 08:53:51 AM »

teens here this morning

and still white stuff covering the ground

40s forecast for this week
50s for the weekend

not golfing weather

MikeDeTiger · « **Reply #9073 on:** October 30, 2023, 12:19:53 PM »

Quote from: FearlessF on October 30, 2023, 08:53:51 AM

teens here this morning

and still white stuff covering the ground

40s forecast for this week
50s for the weekend

not golfing weather

When you see that around here it means the cartels have moved in.

Cincydawg · « **Reply #9074 on:** November 01, 2023, 07:21:29 AM »

Climate Change: A Curious Crisis | Climate Etc. (judithcurry.com)

MrNubbz · « **Reply #9075 on:** November 01, 2023, 07:34:19 AM »

Quote from: FearlessF on October 30, 2023, 08:53:51 AM

teens here this morning

and still white stuff covering the ground

40s forecast for this week
50s for the weekend

not golfing weather

Well not teens but low '30s,forecast looks the same here

NorthernOhioBuckeye · « **Reply #9076 on:** November 01, 2023, 08:15:46 AM »

It snowed in my neck of the woods last night. Got home around 8:30pm and there was a very light snow on the roads. Still some hanging around on the roof and on my truck this morning.

847badgerfan · « **Reply #9077 on:** November 01, 2023, 09:27:10 AM »

Headed up to Chicago tomorrow for a quick trip to see the grandkids. Thankfully it is projected to warm up for the weekend.

FearlessF · « **Reply #9078 on:** November 01, 2023, 09:31:56 AM »

yup, might hit 60 here Sunday afternoon

might be the last round of golf at the Valley

847badgerfan · « **Reply #9079 on:** November 01, 2023, 10:33:46 AM »

In the Green-Steel Race, the Biggest Producers Are Laggards

By Ed Ballard

Green steelmaking is becoming a reality—just in the wrong places.

Steel, crucial for everything from ships to apartment buildings, contributes 7% of global carbon emissions, according to the International Energy Agency. That mostly comes from blast furnaces that smelt iron ore with coke at above 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit to make iron.

New alternatives to the centuries-old technology are emerging, aided by regulations, climate-tech investment and demand from buyers like auto and appliance makers that want to reduce the carbon emissions of their products. Steelmakers in Europe are embracing the new technologies.

The problem is that China and India, by far the biggest builders of new steel plants, are still building the traditional, heavily polluting kind.

In China alone, planned blast furnaces will have 160 million tons of combined annual capacity, according to a new report by researchers at Global Energy Monitor and the Leadership Group for Industry Transition. India is planning to add roughly 70 million tons of annual capacity, though much of that is in the early stages so there’s a greater chance some won’t materialize, according to Global Energy Monitor analyst Caitlin Swalec.

The capacity of the new plants in China, which are largely replacements for existing ones, equates to roughly 16% of its 2022 production, according to the World Steel Association.

They dwarf the green steel plants being added in Europe.

“These blast furnaces are a block in the way of investment or research and development in these low-carbon technologies,” said Xinyi Shen, an analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a think tank.

China’s industrial giants are working on green-steel projects, responding to Beijing’s climate targets and international demand. HBIS, the sixth-largest steelmaker, has a plan to supply low-carbon steel to BMW, for instance, and it’s looking into various ways of cutting emissions.

But those efforts look like a sideshow compared with a new generation of blast furnaces. These steel plants could operate for decades, similar to China’s wave of new coal plants. The new steel and coal plants will make it hard for China to hit its target of becoming carbon neutral by 2060.

The downturn in China’s construction sector, the world’s largest steel consumer, is weighing on global steel demand. Shen said new blast-furnace plans are driven less by demand forecasts than by government support and low-cost financing for job-creating infrastructure projects. Those efforts to keep people working amid amid the slowdown will have a long legacy.

Capturing carbon from blast furnaces could offer a way to decarbonize them, but carbon-capture projects have faced technical problems and cost overruns. Several European green-steel projects will use hydrogen instead of coal, sidestepping the blast furnace (see the Data Point section lower down). These methods will likely cost more for years.

Many experts think the real shift in Chinese steel production won’t rely on new technologies but will instead follow the pattern of the U.S., where steel is mostly made from scrap using electric-arc furnaces. China too is entering the age of scrap as the buildings, bridges and cars of the boom years age. It’s building electric-arc furnaces to handle it.

Emissions from that process vary depending on where the electricity comes from, but it’s cleaner than making crude steel using a blast furnace.

In the meantime, if Beijing eventually decides that new blast furnaces clash with its climate goals, one possibility is a financial hit down the line for the generally state-controlled banks that financed them. The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air estimates that steel mills approved since 2020 represent $100 billion in assets that could be stranded by the energy transition.

Tell me what you think: Send your feedback and suggestions to ed.ballard@wsj.com. And if somebody forwarded you this email, you can subscribe here.

Cincydawg · « **Reply #9080 on:** November 08, 2023, 06:38:47 AM »

Climate: Scientists warn 2023 likely to be the hottest year on record (cnbc.com)

My plan ...

1. Throw a few billion out there.
2. Have more meetings.
3. Issue more proclamations about how bad it is and we need to DO "something".

Cincydawg · « **Reply #9081 on:** November 10, 2023, 07:30:40 AM »

The world is planning to blow the fossil fuels production limit that would keep a lid on global heating, report says | CNN

More hand wringing. Time for another meeting.

Global fossil fuel production in 2030 is set to be more than double the levels that are deemed consistent with meeting climate goals set under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, the United Nations and researchers said on Wednesday.

The United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) report, assessing the gap in fossil fuel production cuts and what’s needed to meet climate goals, comes ahead of the global COP 28 climate meeting, which starts on November 30 in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates.

“Fossil fuel phase out is one of the pivotal issues that will be negotiated at COP 28,” Ploy Achakulwisut, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) scientist and a lead author of the report said in a press briefing.

Cincydawg · « **Reply #9082 on:** November 14, 2023, 08:15:01 AM »

Climate change: Countries’ emissions plans put the world ‘wildly off track’ to contain heating, UN assessment shows | CNN

In the latest clear evidence that the world remains [color=var(--theme-paragraph__link-color)]wildly off track[/iurl] when it comes to tackling the [color=var(--theme-paragraph__link-color)]climate crisis[/color], the UN has found that even if countries enact all of their current climate pledges, planet-heating pollution in 2030 will still be 9% higher than it was in 2010.[/font][/size][/color]
This reveals a stark gap between the course nations are charting and what science says is needed to avert the most catastrophic impacts of climate change.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world needs to decrease emissions by 45% by the end of this decade compared to 2010 to meet the internationally-agreed ambition of limiting [color=var(--theme-paragraph__link-color)]global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius[/iurl] above pre-industrial levels. An increase of 9% means that target is way off.[/font][/size][/color]

We've known this for a decade, KNOWN this, and just now it's news? Something is afoot here.

Cincydawg · « **Reply #9083 on:** November 14, 2023, 08:23:01 AM »

Stiell said these findings should catalyze bolder action at the UN’s upcoming COP28 climate summit in Dubai. “Every fraction of a degree matters, but we are severely off track,” he said. “COP28 is our time to change that.”

At COP28, countries will complete the global stocktake exercise, where they assess progress on climate action. The process is intended to feed into the next round of more ambitious national climate action plans due to be submitted to the UN in 2025.

Fret and complain and have another meeting to talk about it. In Dubai, which is a pretty nice place to hold a meeting. I think they also produce a lot of oil there. The place is insanely wealthy.

My guess is some of these folks are serious about it, I suspect most are "along for the ride".

FearlessF · « **Reply #9084 on:** November 14, 2023, 08:29:24 AM »

bolder action and more ambitious plans should fix it

Cincydawg · « **Reply #9085 on:** November 14, 2023, 08:37:54 AM »

It reminds me so much of my work experiences it's funny. I lean to thinking all of life is pretty similar because humans are pretty much the same, usually. They prefer meetings and talk to action, they like to whine and complain, they like to claim someone else isn't doing enough, they like meetings in glamorous places, the like travel on someone else's dime.

I've told the story of a "training" event I was supposed to attend, week long, stay in a hotel, open bar every night, food included. The "training" was by every account the usual silliness, a whole week of it. I never went. I couldn't stomach being around folks for that long.

I thought about showing up for the vacation part and ignoring the meeting part.

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Topic: Weather, Climate, Environment, and Energy

FearlessF

Re: Weather, Climate, Environment, and Energy

MikeDeTiger

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Cincydawg

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MrNubbz

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NorthernOhioBuckeye

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847badgerfan

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FearlessF

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847badgerfan

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Cincydawg

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Cincydawg

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Cincydawg

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Cincydawg

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FearlessF

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Cincydawg

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