If the Earth were the Titanic and the Iceberg was CO2 levels...

[WarGamer]

After striking the Iceberg, China keeps putting the Titanic in reverse and striking the Iceberg repeatedly.

Europe is using buckets to throw water overboard and the US is spending billions to slow the flow with sponges from the gashed hull.

And this is why:

https://e360.yale.edu/features/despite-pledges-to-cut-emissions-china-goes-on-a-coal-spree

Despite Pledges to Cut Emissions, China Goes on a Coal Spree

China is building large numbers of coal-fired power plants to drive its post-pandemic economy. The government has promised a CO2 emissions peak by 2030, but the new coal binge jeopardizes both China’s decarbonization plans and global efforts to tackle climate change.

During the Congress, air pollution returned to Beijing with a vengeance, hitting the highest levels since January 2019, as the economy hummed out of the pandemic. Steel, cement, and heavy manufacturing, predominantly backed by coal power, boosted China’s carbon dioxide emissions 4 percent in the second half of 2020 compared to the same pre-pandemic period the year before. At the same time, the goals in the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan on energy intensity, carbon intensity, and renewables were hazy as well, little more than vague commitments to tackle carbon dioxide emissions.

Coal remains at the heart of China’s flourishing economy. In 2019, 58 percent of the country’s total energy consumption came from coal, which helps explain why China accounts for 28 percent of all global CO2 emissions. And China continues to build coal-fired power plants at a rate that outpaces the rest of the world combined. In 2020, China brought 38.4 gigawatts of new coal-fired power into operation, more than three times what was brought on line everywhere else.



Let's repeat this.

In 2020 alone, China built 38.4 gigawatts of Coal Fired Power Plants online... MORE THAN 3X that of the entire world.



Bottom line:

I wish people would stop talking about "Tackling Climate Change" or "Fighting Climate Change" or other vapid empty promises.

We're on track for 1000ppm CO2 by 2100 which means palm trees in the Arctic Circle.

How many Teslas do you think it takes to cancel out the CO2 emissions of a coal fired power plant in a year?

?itok=W57BtpJB

[Doc Sportello]

1. Sobering report

I wish the news was better but like you said, we're getting a lot of vapid slogans and empty promises.

A lot of J. Bruce Ismays out there who think the ship can't sink.

[WarGamer]

2. I just shake my head...

CO2 numbers are about to go vertical.

China has straight up said they're going 110% building coal plants through 2030 and then they'll probably change that deadline to 2040.

We, as the HUMAN family need to PREPARE NOW. Mitigation is a joke. Mitigation is a way for politicians to tell hopeful stories to people and for some Corporations to make a lot of money.

We're going to need those futuristic "bubble cities" like you see in SciFi movies. We're going to need unbelievable amounts of power, where are the 21st Century nuclear power plants?

We've already "broke the planet"... time to pay the bill.

EDIT: And that's not even taking India into account which is ALSO rapidly increasing power grid capacity.

[misanthrope]

3. Well, at least there's another realist here

To avert the worst of the oncoming disaster will require many billions of human beings to simultaneously deny their nature, completely alter their instinctive behavior and to keep doing it for the rest of their lives.

[Kaleva]

4. And the effects of climate change will not be uniform throughout the world

Some areas will be devastated, others won't see too much of a change and some will become more suitable for human habituation.

IMHO, the Biden Administration should continue efforts at mitigation but also now start taking steps to prepare people to adapt to what is coming in case mitigation fails which I believe will very likely happen.

[Doc Sportello]

5. Very good points

The only thing I would disagree with are the nuclear power plants, although it will probably come to that because our system is set up for more, more, more. To me the only way to change things is less consumption, less reliance on power and less people. Don't see that happening in this current world.

[Celerity]

6. China Goes on a Coal Spree