Really good overview of the climate aspects of the bill that was just passed
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Thanks. I’ve, also, been wondering what’s in that bill, and it’s it any good. And that was great to watch, both to learn what’s in the bill, and also for reassurance that it’s actually pretty decent.
This video forced me to break my personal embargo on the vlogbrothers channel.
I’ve never watched their vlogbrothers stuff, but I quite enjoy their crash course content. And hank has a lot of other really good stuff out there (scishow, eons, I’m sure there are others).
Hank took longer to get used to than John.
I came to being a Hank fan via scishow, pbs eons and all the stuff he produces/creates/whatever out of Missoula.
John is still taking some getting used to.
Yeah it was informative and it sounds like the bill does more good than bad.
The video doesn’t address the disposal of spent solar panels and wind turbines, which as I understand it, is not a trivial issue.
Does anyone know if the actual bill addresses those issues? Just curious.
Next to the actual progress this bill is making, those are trivial items.
Lol, these idiots are still dreaming about their midwest water
Yeah, just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
But it does remind me of:
IANAEnvironmentalScientist, but the least wacky sounding (to me) idea mentioned in the article is surely desalinating ocean water.
I recall making a solar still in Girl Scouts… no electricity required. What’s the feasibility of doing something like that large-scale? I guess you’d need some electricity to pump the sea water in and the fresh water out, and to clean out the salt & other sludge periodically.
Would doing so put a dent in the rising ocean levels? (I assume not enough of one to matter. Still…)
Are there better ways to desalinate?
Can you find any article that compares a future of green energy trash to any other form of trash?
I think it’s a good question, but I worry that people think green energy is supposed to be less garbage-producing than other things, because it has the word “green” in its name (which is obviously irrational).
I am admittedly not sure of any calculation along the lines of “cubic meters of waste per MW of energy produced” but that would be an interesting comparison across different types of energy.
Of course not all waste is equal. Spent nuclear fuel rods are radioactive with a half-life of several hundred years (more with older nuclear technology) whereas spent wind turbines are not hazardous material but they’re enormous to deal with. Spent solar panels could leach chemicals into the ground so I’m not sure how those are disposed of safely.
And the waste isn’t the only environmental concern either. It’s just one that, other than nuclear, seems to get mostly ignored.
I’m glad they’re trying to address natural gas leaks. I was driving the other day and got overwhelmed with the smell of a natural gas pipe leak. Such a waste.
Yeah, I’m not quite sure the right way to think about it.
Generally speaking, I would rather trash be addressed separately. Everyone should pay for the trash they produce, and that should be an incentive to recycle that trash. Turbine blades are large, but that doesn’t make them unique. Solar panels can have toxic minerals, but that doesn’t make them unique either. Probably the only really unique thing about the industry is that it’s growing.
Nuclear waste is unique. Although frankly it doesn’t worry me that much.
That said this bill is pretty hands-on about creating an industry, so maybe it should include something? I’m not sure.
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The article says that Mississippi water is never going to happen. So, whoever wrote it isn’t one of the “idiots”.
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No, the idiots are their readers and locals that are still clamoring on about this literal pipedream, all started from a “opinion piece” they published by someone that “did their own research” about why this is such simole solution. Also, the writer treats the proposal completely seriously, which makes it even more of a joke.
I am mocking everything coming from that paper wrt to this novel solution.
You and I read the same article and came away with different impressions on the message.
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The modern approach is reverse osmosis, forcing water through a semipermeable membrane. This article from the trade association says they can do it for about 0.1 kwh of electricity per cubic foot of water. Or, according to their calculations, the electricity used for all the water for one household is about equal to the electricity used by a refrigerator.
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I am very excited about the climate bill. 
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