undefined | Better HN

0 pointssremani7y ago0 comments

That is correct no country in the world has reduced CO2 emissions like the US did in the past decade, thanks to Shale revolution. Pennsylvania is the world's #3 producer of NG. I mean one state in US.

Even if some people grudge this fact, the Grid is not ready for variable generation that Wind and Solar does, they do buy some time for Grid to become smarter (Grid of MicroGrids) where it can digest Solar and Wind, especially now that viable storage like batteries and fuel cells are coming off age.

0 comments

5 comments · 2 top-level

jamesblonde7y ago· 2 in thread

Hang on. The US pulled out the Paris accord. The US also had a huge financial crisis that caused emissions to drop. I don't think policy can take credit for the slight reductions in Co2 emissions, from ridiculously high levels.

sremaniOP7y ago

Policy tinkering as a solution to climate problem is like EU trying to force Windows to include other browsers to dethrone IE.

What actually dethroned IE was Chrome and better Firefox.

Policy wonking can push you in certain direction, but they do not solve. Sometimes the bridge technologies are the ones that save from imminent doom.

People demonstrating urgency with climate change, can certainly set an example by cutting their quality of life by half for starters!

majewsky7y ago

Who's to say that regulations didn't play into the demise of IE? Maybe if we hadn't had the antitrust cases in the EU (and the US!), at some point MS would've been confident enough to just make it impossible to install a different browser. Similar to how Apple requires all iOS browsers to use the Apple's engine.

Reason0777y ago· 1 in thread

It may be true that the USA has achieved the largest reduction in CO2 emissions in absolute terms. But they’re coming off a very large base.

In percentage terms, there are several countries that have done significantly better, including the UK who’s CO2 emissions are now 38% below 1990 levels (and 25% below 2012 levels!) despite significant population growth.

While US emissions have, by some measurements, dropped in the past decade, they are still well above 1990 levels.

sremaniOP7y ago

The lack of sense of proportion that pervades HN when comparing US with other countries .. US is 7x bigger economy and 4x more population. Wyoming is larger than UK in area.

Some of the optimistic models do say US is at 1985 levels.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse