World's hottest day since records began

Shoog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120837175#Comment_120837175

Though I am no fan of targeted taxes, they have been effective in encouraging people to fit solar and retrofit their homes. Climate taxes are a virtuous circle where the revenues are recycled to pay for more climate addressing actions. The only way to avoid them is to improve your own home/life's performance. Grants paid for by climate focused taxes can reduce your cost of living very dramatically.

OldRio

Unfortunately most people can't afford the grants for homes.

Shoog

There are many grants for people on very low incomes which cover almost all costs.

Loft and cavity wall insulation are almost totally covered by grants and will have paybacks of a few years at most.

monseiur

The burning of fossil fuels emits green house gases. Take coal for example, China burns ...wait for it, 4.5 BILLION TONS of the stuff every year and India burns almost a BILLION TONS and the tonnage in both case is rising annually.

China has plans to build numerous giant coal burning power stations within the next 5 to 10 years - they need the extra power to produce more and more products of all kinds to satisfy the insatiable appetite of the western world........including solar panels where the demand is vastly outstripping supply. These solar panels have a huge carbon foot print even before they leave China add to that transportation etc. This current climate craze is big business and the Chinese and others are on to it big time.

Certain delusional, brainwashed folk here are going into debt fitting, solar panels, retro fitting heat pumps etc. not because they hope to have a warmer home but believing that they're doing their bit to save the planet. Same applies to electric vehicles.

Farmers are being advised to re-wet part or all of their farms, to cut back on production, let the land go wild leave it to the birds, bees and wild animals. Meanwhile as farmers here reduce production and the young generation are forced to abandon the land, countries like Brazil and Argentina are doubling and trebling their agriculture production to fill the gap in the market. To expand their production Brazil are destroying/burning more and more of the Amazon Jungle....said to be the lungs of the planet. You just could not make it up.

Farmers here produce agriculture products that are as near as possible to being organic. Instead of cutting back they should be encouraged to produce more as the world is crying out for quality food and Ireland has the climate, land and know how to produce almost 'green' (pardon intended pun) products with minimal carbon and other emissions thus help to save the Amazon Jungle etc. etc.

The inconvenient truth is that Ireland is just a tiny rocky out crop in the north Atlantic and the amount of carbon emission our few factories, power stations, cars etc. produce is so minuscule it does not even register on a global scale. Try convincing the delusional greens of that fact !

Gaoth Laidir

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120840736#Comment_120840736

Here is the Greenland total mass, with the annual losses (~0.01%) in perspective. A ways to go yet.

Shoog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120845529#Comment_120845529

It's always someone else's fault. I guarantee that your per capita emissions are 10x that of a Chinese person and 20x that of an Indian. We all have to shoulder our share of the burden and people like you and I have had a century of taking our greater share. Time to grow up sonny.

Rikand

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120840736#Comment_120840736

Anyone remember the tv show, The Girl From Tomorrow from the early 90s. It basically described what akrasia describes in his timeline of 500-1000 years from now. In year 2500, the great disaster reaches its peak and the world is plunged into a horrible dystopian future type of thing. But by the year 3000 they have reversed the effects through technology and everyone lives in utopia.

So I say relax, with technology we will sort it out all out eventually and while it might be a bit **** for the next few hundred years, in 1000 years time we'll have realized how to right the wrongs on a global scale and everyone will live in perfect peace and harmony.

bluedex

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120846456#Comment_120846456

Another faux superior and condescending post. "I know best and you just do what I say"

Akrasia

Yes, so I said terminal decline, but it could still take thousands of years. (even thousands of years is still a lot faster than would have happened without human influence

It's been relatively stable for 35 million years.

None of these values are within human timescales so not of much concern to any of us, but the roughly 150 billion tonnes of water being added to the oceans every year through melting antarctic ice sheets is already causing sea level increases, and this volume is only going to increase as temperatures continue to increase

This year in the antarctic, despite being in the depths of winter, the sea ice is still declining. first time we have ever seen this.

The Sea Ice forms a buttress against glaciers such as Thwaites flowing into the sea. If Thwaites collapses, that's 2 feet of sea level increases within a few years

Shoog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120846653#Comment_120846653

What gives you the right to demand more of a share of emissions than any other person on the planet ?

How selfish do you have to be to imagine that you do.

Shoog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120846608#Comment_120846608

Basing your world view on a cheap 90's SI-FI drama. Impressive perspective.

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120844737#Comment_120844737

I think the government needs to make it easier to draw down these grants.

Follow the Italian model, of offering greater than 100% grants for these upgrades but also announce that they're withdrawing all of the fuel subsidies for any homeowner who doesn't participate.

I wouldn't have any objection to offering grants to landlords to do these upgrades too, under the condition that we then require that all rental properties are at B3 or higher (with limited exceptions for listed buildings)

Jizique

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120846739#Comment_120846739

Why should landlords who are already making out like bandits get even more subsidies?

Shoog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120846780#Comment_120846780

Depends on the Landlords. Vulture fund landlords might be making out like bandits, but private landlords who are shouldering debts are selling out of the sector in droves because they are losing money hand over fist (almost all properties coming to the market at the moment are ex-rentals). So maybe a bit of discrimination regarding which type of landlord gets the grants might be in order.

randomname2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120844610#Comment_120844610

Agree, we are not tackling it in food faith and I don't know if we will because tackling the waste and trying to encourage longevity of product will impact the economy, which everyone knows, rules the world.

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120845529#Comment_120845529

You think nature restoration in Ireland is a bad thing because Brazil and Argentina? Ireland has pretty much zero natural habitat, we are the worst in class in Europe, and you're giving out about some land being left to the birds and bees and butterflies. This is what we're up against, we don't deserve this planet.

Oh and how are Irish farmers making all this organic stuff if they're importing millions of tonnes of animal feed every year, of which about 50% is genetically modified, from places like Brazil and Argentina? We can't even grow enough food to feed our own farm animals and you want us to increase production.

randomname2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120846456#Comment_120846456

I will readily agree that my emissions are more than they should be, as in, more than is sustainable for everyone to have and keep the planet safe. However, even if I could go to a state of having the same emissions as someone from China, it will have so little impact on climate change I may as well do nothing. If all of Ireland did it, maybe it would nudge the needle, but we would need to find a whole new set of industry as very few people would want to live that kind of lifestyle having experienced what we currently have, and would emigrate.

Without international agreement on how to tackle the problem there isn't a way out that I can see. We will continuously pump ghg into the air, use more and more water than current levels and continue cutting down forests.

What does shouldering the burden mean to you and how do we implement it on a large scale so that it has a meaningful impact?

Shoog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120846841#Comment_120846841

And that attitude is why everyone is trying to pass the buck. The world is made up of individuals and every individual plays their part and should take responsibility. Part of that responsibility should be to support the efforts our government makes to cut national and European wide emissions. The COP process is the international agreement and we signed up to play our global part in emissions reductions along with all the other signatories.

Personally I am about to renovate a house which will cut my emissions by at least a third, the choice to move will allow me to eliminate one car from the household - so I expect to reduce household emission by nearly half. Thats after a lifetime of actively managing my energy use for both environmental and financial reasons. The money I spend now will save me personally a fortune over the remainder of my life. Where there's a will there's a way as they say.

Most of the big changes have to be made on a national level because they effect the future energy supply and spatial planning of the state - and for the first time in the states history they seem to be taking this part of the equation somewhat seriously.

tom1ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120825752#Comment_120825752

I have to be honest I didn’t expect this sort of realism coming from yourself- I have to applaud you. (I’m being honest hear and not taking the piss)

Climate change wether man made/ natural or a mixture of both is coming.

We should absolutely be preparing and becoming fully self sufficient

SuperBowserWorld

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120847424#Comment_120847424

Ireland is not going to solve any problems. Really. We can barely run public services for a population the size of Barcelona. The only thing that is keeping society "cohesive" is full of employment based on huge consumption of stuff we really don't need and redirection of skills and labour into careers that will be replaced by AI. Leo will be ok as he'll be doing TED talks about how he was so oppressed growing up on Ireland. 😁

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120846780#Comment_120846780

So their tenants don't have to spend all their (and tax payers) money buying fossil fuels to keep warm in winter.

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120846841#Comment_120846841

We, as part of the EU, cut our emissions according to our commitments and then we can enforce those binding commitments onto our trading partners. International agreements cannot work when every party wants to be the free rider while accusing everyone else of being free riders too.

It's not like it's all downside. There will be significant economic benefits in the long run from harassing renewable energy in a 21st century energy grid fit for purpose, while the dinosaurs are stuck playing catch-up

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120844610#Comment_120844610

The Rowan Atkinson article was heavily rebuked after his facts were checked, but this one point is missing the picture. Not everyone can afford a new car. We need the people and fleet managers who do purchase new vehicles to choose BEV now, so in 5 to 10 years time there will be a second hand market for when all the older ICE cars get retired. Anyone buying a brand new ICE today, is committing to another 10-20 years of fossil fuel emissions, or the car will end up bring scrapped early this representing an even worse use of scarce resources.

The state's role should be to actively incentivise or require the rollout of charging infrastructure. Why isn't every petrol station obliged to have at least 1 BEV charging point? Most of them already have 3 phase power on site, it would be trivial to install some charging points

(The fact that they're mostly owned by fossil fuel companies or under contract with fossil fuel companies might be a clue as to the reason why)

Every shopping centre should have to have at least x% of parking spaces devoted to charging BEVs. Same with every employer above a certain size who offers free parking to employees, etc

Once we get a critical mass of infrastructure in place, then ICE cars will not be able to compete

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120844495#Comment_120844495

How much would your ESB bill have been if those wind farms weren't there? Electricity prices would undoubtedly have been more expensive over the past few years if we relied even more on gas than we already did

Jizique

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120847571#Comment_120847571

I know from talking to US petrol station owners (big chains) that those who invested in chargers even in places with high EV penetration have been disappointed by the returns as it appears the owners prefer to charge at home - not sure why it would be different here, not everyone (it seems) wants to hang around a gas station when they can charge overnight at home

Jizique

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120847505#Comment_120847505

So the govt gives an upgrade in value of perhaps 20% of the property, with no return? With no guarantee of no rent increase? Taxpayer the bigger fool again

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120847597#Comment_120847597

By far the vast majority of people will always prefer to charge at home, but as the take-up of BEVs increases, there will be more and more people who need to be able to top up their car every now and then. A 10 minute charging session while someone pops into the shop buys coffee, a sandwich and an ice cream and the shop owner is turning a decent profit

Jizique

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120847615#Comment_120847615

That is what they thought eqhich is why they put in the investment but it has not worked out as expected, despite being in affluent areas with high (for the US) EV penetration

cdeb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120847571#Comment_120847571

There was a follow-up article which criticised a few things for sure, but it didn't take away from that point that the current model of buying new cars is unsustainable.

Yep, not everyone can afford a new car - but that doesn't mean we need people out there buying a car every three years. As Atkinson said, cars these days should be perfectly able to last 25-30 years (let's leave aside the need at the moment to start switching to electric), but the average age of a car in Ireland is about 8.5 years. So it would be a carbon benefit to ban PCP and discourage people buying new cars every three years, but of course it won't happen because there's no money to be made. Instead, we'll look to lock people into buying electric cars every three years despite the fact this is actually less carbon efficient.

tom1ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120847581#Comment_120847581

How much will they be when private wind generation corporations own our energy?