4 ms·

What solutions are available?

by hammyhavoc 4y ago

briantakita 4y ago
What would directly help people in a heat wave on a timescale that matters to them?
- hammyhavoc 4y ago
  I don't know, I also don't know if 1bn people could be helped on a timescale that matters to them, hence asking. It's well outside of my area of expertise, but I'm curious.
  - briantakita 4y ago
    How about some tech to provide cooler living spaces for these people?
    - hammyhavoc 4y ago
      Such as what? The article states "Even as power plants burned more coal to provide the power needed to keep people cool, the country experienced a nationwide electricity shortage.", so AC units aren't going to solve the problem.
    - lusus_naturae 4y ago
      Ive always wondered if houses and buildings could be architected to absorb heat and use it for energy Maybe even providing heat proof shelters (like bus stops etc) every x km may help immediately. Maybe.
      - hammyhavoc 4y ago
        Heatproof shelters aren't solving the problem. If you assume the hypothetical impact on well-being to a billion human beings, and potential deaths of 100-300 million human beings, what kind of physical scale are we looking at to shelter a billion human beings assuming one shelter every x km? It's about on a par with only equipping a large commercial airliner with a single oxygen mask. How about the materials required? The scale of manufacturing? The impact of the manufacturing on the environment? The impact of shipping and installing them on the environment? It would sooner make sense to create underground cities, but that's no small endeavour.
        lusus_naturae 4y ago
        Infrastructural changes always sound scary and impossible, and I am in no way saying one solution is the best or indeed going to work. But good questions maybe, which is why I am saying innovation is required. Changing our way of life is possible though, say when people switched to cars from carriages or when we switched to electricity and laid out the various grid systems. Asking people to move north is not going to cut it or be enough. When a technology is useful or practical or helpful, making the switch is easier.
        briantakita 4y ago
        > Heatproof shelters aren't solving the problem > How about the materials required? The scale of manufacturing? The impact of the manufacturing on the environment? The impact of shipping and installing them on the environment? So we don't have the competence or resources to directly help people with heat waves but we have the competence & resources for a bigger than Manhattan Project scale effort for climactic scale projects such as carbon capture & moving humanity underground? Perhaps there's some already invented devices which can cool a dwelling?
yogthos 4y ago
Replacing fossil fuels with alternative energy and nuclear power. If US spent even a fraction of the resources on that instead of maintaining its global military empire, the world would be in a far better place today.
- hammyhavoc 4y ago
  How quickly can nuclear be rolled out relative to the impact on the well-being of a billion people? And what does the mitigation of the existing problem look like assuming projected figures of x?
  - yogthos 4y ago
    Here's the timeline for China to become carbon neutral https://www.visualcapitalist.com/chinas-energy-transition-in-5-charts/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/chinas-energy-transition-in... China will spend 400 billion to build at least 150 new nuclear plants https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-11-02/china-climate-goals-hinge-on-440-billion-nuclear-power-plan-to-rival-u-s?leadSource=uverify%20wall https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-11-02/china-cli... China currently has 24 nuclear power plants under active construction, with a combined power output of 26 gigawatts https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202304/27/WS6449c703a310b6054fad0096.html https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202304/27/WS6449c703a310b605... In addition, one in five solar panels installed worldwide last year were mounted on a Chinese roof, providing locally distributed power that supplements the grid https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-03-27/why-china-rooftop-solar-power-leads-world-on-clean-energy-capacity https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-03-27/why-china... China now dominates the world in solar power production https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-china-is-dominating-the-solar-industry/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-china-is-domi... This year, China has further widened the gap in renewable usage https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/china-widens-renewable-energy-supply-lead-with-wind-power-push-2023-03-01/ https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/china-widens-ren... This is what can be achieved when a country directs its resources towards infrastructure projects instead of imperialism.
    - 4y ago

What solutions are available?

briantakita 4y ago

What would directly help people in a heat wave on a timescale that matters to them?

hammyhavoc 4y ago
I don't know, I also don't know if 1bn people could be helped on a timescale that matters to them, hence asking. It's well outside of my area of expertise, but I'm curious.
- briantakita 4y ago
  How about some tech to provide cooler living spaces for these people?
  - hammyhavoc 4y ago
    Such as what? The article states "Even as power plants burned more coal to provide the power needed to keep people cool, the country experienced a nationwide electricity shortage.", so AC units aren't going to solve the problem.
  - lusus_naturae 4y ago
    Ive always wondered if houses and buildings could be architected to absorb heat and use it for energy Maybe even providing heat proof shelters (like bus stops etc) every x km may help immediately. Maybe.
    - hammyhavoc 4y ago
      Heatproof shelters aren't solving the problem. If you assume the hypothetical impact on well-being to a billion human beings, and potential deaths of 100-300 million human beings, what kind of physical scale are we looking at to shelter a billion human beings assuming one shelter every x km? It's about on a par with only equipping a large commercial airliner with a single oxygen mask. How about the materials required? The scale of manufacturing? The impact of the manufacturing on the environment? The impact of shipping and installing them on the environment? It would sooner make sense to create underground cities, but that's no small endeavour.
      - lusus_naturae 4y ago
        Infrastructural changes always sound scary and impossible, and I am in no way saying one solution is the best or indeed going to work. But good questions maybe, which is why I am saying innovation is required. Changing our way of life is possible though, say when people switched to cars from carriages or when we switched to electricity and laid out the various grid systems. Asking people to move north is not going to cut it or be enough. When a technology is useful or practical or helpful, making the switch is easier.
      - briantakita 4y ago
        > Heatproof shelters aren't solving the problem > How about the materials required? The scale of manufacturing? The impact of the manufacturing on the environment? The impact of shipping and installing them on the environment? So we don't have the competence or resources to directly help people with heat waves but we have the competence & resources for a bigger than Manhattan Project scale effort for climactic scale projects such as carbon capture & moving humanity underground? Perhaps there's some already invented devices which can cool a dwelling?

yogthos 4y ago

Replacing fossil fuels with alternative energy and nuclear power. If US spent even a fraction of the resources on that instead of maintaining its global military empire, the world would be in a far better place today.

hammyhavoc 4y ago
How quickly can nuclear be rolled out relative to the impact on the well-being of a billion people? And what does the mitigation of the existing problem look like assuming projected figures of x?
- yogthos 4y ago
  Here's the timeline for China to become carbon neutral https://www.visualcapitalist.com/chinas-energy-transition-in-5-charts/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/chinas-energy-transition-in... China will spend 400 billion to build at least 150 new nuclear plants https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-11-02/china-climate-goals-hinge-on-440-billion-nuclear-power-plan-to-rival-u-s?leadSource=uverify%20wall https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-11-02/china-cli... China currently has 24 nuclear power plants under active construction, with a combined power output of 26 gigawatts https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202304/27/WS6449c703a310b6054fad0096.html https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202304/27/WS6449c703a310b605... In addition, one in five solar panels installed worldwide last year were mounted on a Chinese roof, providing locally distributed power that supplements the grid https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-03-27/why-china-rooftop-solar-power-leads-world-on-clean-energy-capacity https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-03-27/why-china... China now dominates the world in solar power production https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-china-is-dominating-the-solar-industry/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-china-is-domi... This year, China has further widened the gap in renewable usage https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/china-widens-renewable-energy-supply-lead-with-wind-power-push-2023-03-01/ https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/china-widens-ren... This is what can be achieved when a country directs its resources towards infrastructure projects instead of imperialism.
  - 4y ago