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> Everything we can do, helps make it less bad Well sometimes. Recycling turns out to be more energy intensive than deposit and reuse. All the moves to effic

> Everything we can do, helps make it less bad Well sometimes. Recycling turns out to be more energy intensive than deposit and reuse. All the moves to efficiency, LED and CCFL lighting, and can be offset by permitting a single additional fracking or shale oil site. Makes it difficult not to logically become a pessimist who gives up when the idiots have orders of magnitude more leverage.

jabl 8y ago
> Well sometimes. Perhaps I should have explicitly written "Everything we can do [to reduce GHG emissions]". Of course there's lots of things we do that makes the situation worse! > Recycling turns out to be more energy intensive than deposit and reuse. Sometimes, sometimes not. Say, smelting recycled steel produces a lot less GHG emissions than producing fresh steel with a blast furnace, particularly if the local electricity grid has low carbon intensity. But yes, there are other considerations in the world than GHG emissions. And in some cases increasing GHG emissions might be worth it (say, lifting 3rd world countries out of energy poverty). I'm just saying that GHG reductions should have a lot higher weight in policymaking than what it has now. > All the moves to efficiency, LED and CCFL lighting, and can be offset by permitting a single additional fracking or shale oil site. Maybe. But, it would be even worse if we hadn't done the efficiency, LED etc. stuff and instead permitted two additional wells! Everything, well if not actually helps, at least makes it less bad. > Makes it difficult not to logically become a pessimist who gives up when the idiots have orders of magnitude more leverage. I agree, it's hard. Have to keep trying!