Ask Mayor Kim to Join Climate Mayors

[knieft]

quote:

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Originally posted by HereOnThePrimalEdge
Is the situation really so hopeless, so broken and beyond remedy, that we may as well do nothing?

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Likely.

Cheers,
Kirt

[Jeremy Lutes]

quote:

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Originally posted by Obie

The highest polluting Helco plant on the island emits about 140,028 pounds per year.Compare this to the east rift zone vents at 5,000 metric tonnes per day.

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Tonnes of what ? Please elaborate.

Volcanic emissions worldwide are less than 1% of emissions from human activity.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/artic...or-humans/

[Obie]

"Tonnes of what ? Please elaborate."

SO2 the same thing the powerplant in Hilo emits.

[Jeremy Lutes]

Still not clear on what you're going for.

Are you arguing that because the "dirtiest" power plant on the island (over which we have complete control) emits so much less SO2 (not a greenhouse gas !) than the volcano (over which we have no control), we should just kick back and do nothing ?

[Durian Fiend]

quote:

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Originally posted by leilanidude

Carbon Farming Task Force within the Office of Planning
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Maybe they can start with the volcano?

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Start what? This response is a non sequitur, either from a misunderstanding of the concept or a desire to cynically belittle these efforts.
Carbon farming isn't about reducing CO2 emissions, whether they be anthropogenic or volcanic, it's about agricultural practices that mitigate them to some degree.

[geochem]

Seems to be a lot of confusion here... or argument for argument's sake. The Kilauea summit produces about 5000 tonnes per day of sulfur dioxide and anywhere from 5 to 10 times that amount of carbon dioxide (although we don't actually know that number very well at all). Sulfur dioxide (and especially from Kilauea) has no role in global climate change (stratospheric injections of sulfur dioxide from volcanoes does have a big role, if a fairly temporary one). Can neither validate nor dispute the claim that volcanic CO2 amounts to 1% of anthropogenic sources - although volcanic sources are, at best, poorly known.

Encouraging our good mayor to sign onto the Paris Climate Accord is no more nor less silly that all the other grandstanding that he and the rest of our political class does - might as well declare that, because the homeless have no beds to sleep on, the force of gravity in Puna will be reduced by 20% for the next 25 years to make it more comfortable for them....

The refusal of our political class (and their very vocal supporters) to take the necessary actions to displace the use of fossil fuels on this island (all the while asserting that we will be independent of fossil fuels in less than 30 years) through furthering the use of geothermal power puts the lie to all this grandstanding - or shows it for what it is - empty rhetoric. But, as Donald Trump (and Harry Kim) have so clearly demonstrated, that is all that's required to get elected in today's world....

[geochem]

To supplement my comments above - I found this video to be relevant and extremely thought provoking wrt the climate change debate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47bNzLj5E_Q

Rob, feel free to delete if you feel that it violates your keep it local policy.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

furthering the use of geothermal power

Yes.
Expanding geothermal electric generating capacity on the Big Island would be a REAL step in reducing the use of fossil fuels here, not just decorative rhetoric.

I agree, most of the discussion about the Paris Climate Accord has been just that, talk, and paperwork, but unfortunately it takes a long time to guide people and industries toward a change. All the talk we've had up until now has been like a baby taking it's first steps, all we can do is try and point the child in the right direction and hope s/he doesn't walk into a wall.

[EightFingers]

Maybe he should visit China and slap a few higher ups around. After all China is the biggest polluter!

When did it change from "global warming" to " climate change"?

[Durian Fiend]

quote:

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Originally posted by geochem

To supplement my comments above - I found this video to be relevant and extremely thought provoking wrt the climate change debate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47bNzLj5E_Q

Rob, feel free to delete if you feel that it violates your keep it local policy.

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The temperature extrapolations aren't presented clearly.

When Lomborg says the temperature would go down by .002 degrees by the end of the century with Obama's clean power plant initiative, it could be interpreted as a temperature decrease from present day records. In fact, he means just .002 degrees less than whatever the current projections are for how much warmer it will be then, due to climate change.

I'm skeptical of his analysis, as he has a history of misrepresenting IPCC data, and think his conclusion is faulty.

It's not an either support green energy innovation or support government policy change proposition, it will require both to make a real difference.