Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸

I hate this timeline.

As a long time #climate campaigner... I almost feel like I should be hoping that the Iran/US war continues as long as possible so the price of oil and gasoline can go as high as possible and force economies to electrify and shift at emergency-speed to renewables.

We could have started on this the easy way 30 years ago... but a few of the same people objected and obstructed.

#IranUSIsraelWar #ClimateCatastrophe #ClimateWar #Oil #EndFossilFuels #ClimateCollapse #USA #CanPoli #CdnPoli

Apr 2 at 8:47pmWeb
Show threadMilitaryG17h ago
@chris 30 years ago we weren't ready for electrify we would go back to horses. Now we ain't ready to go back to the horses.
Show threadChris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸17h ago
@MilitaryG we could have *started* 30 years ago in many many ways that would have our position today very very different
Show threadSpace Burger Steve 🌌🍔🤪11h ago

@chris @MilitaryG

Electricity generating wind turbines were invented in 1883. Vancouver has had electric trolley busses since 1948. The first concentrated solar power plant was built in 1968. Germany set up funding for installing photovoltaic roofs in 1989, Japan followed in 1994. Ballard went public in 1993, I remember reading about their fuel cells and electric cars in high school.

All the tech existed in 1996, financial necessity would have pushed innovation a lot harder than environmental foresight did.

Frick, George W Bush advocated for turning to hydrogen as an energy source in his 2003 State Of The Union address, not for the environment, but to make America less dependent on foreign energy. I'm still bitter that environmentalists didn't use that opportunity to latch on to protectionism to sell renewables to conservatives. That could have been 23 years of preparation. Not much choice now.

Show threadMilitaryG10h ago

@Space_Burger_Steve @chris agree but problem was battery wasn't so efficient as it's today the most effective was lead battery which would make car weight maybe 10 tons to drive maybe 50km

With li-ions it's much better.

Show threadChris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸10h ago
@MilitaryG @Space_Burger_Steve but there *were* other options like massive expansion in the use of electrified mass transit, and electrification of many other aspects of lives, buildings, etc. SO much could have already been done.
Show threadSpace Burger Steve 🌌🍔🤪9h ago

@MilitaryG @chris

The first DC locomotive was built in 1837, AC in 1896. The first electric car was built in 1834, and in 1900 38% of the cars in America were electric. No way was an electric car impossible in 1996.

https://www.go-electra.com/en/newsroom/first-electric-car-history-and-origins-from-1834-to-today/

And even if it was, that's why I mentioned fuel cells, which is probably what W was talking about when he mentioned hydrogen. Batteries are better now, but in the 90s fuel cells looked like the better option. In fact, the company I mentioned is still making fuel cells today, apparently they're a good alternative to diesel for busses:

https://www.richmond-news.com/technology/european-busmaker-places-big-order-for-bc-based-ballard-fuel-cells-7663078

We could have made way more progress than we have in the last 30 years.

The first electric car: history and origins from 1834 to today

Discover the history of the first electric car: from pioneers Anderson and Davenport in 1834 to the Jamais Contente's record in 1899. A look back at a French invention.

Electra
Show threadChris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸9h ago

@Space_Burger_Steve @MilitaryG GM released the first “modern” production North American electric car, the EV1, in 1996.

Then they killed it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1

We are in the predicament we are because of very specific choices by very particular people and nothing more.

General Motors EV1 - Wikipedia

Show threadIcooIey3h ago
@MilitaryG @Space_Burger_Steve @chris Connecticut has had pumped hydro storage since 1929. Still operational. Obviously not a battery solution possible everywhere, but certainly could have been more widely adopted to address the battery “problem.”
Show threadtripleman, a 🇨🇦 in 🇩🇪2h ago
@Space_Burger_Steve I’m with you but there was no way to sell conservatives on renewables back then. I lived in Alberta for seven years around that time. The whole culture is so ossified around drilling for oil that it’s core to their identity. It’s *still* damn near impossible: they’re throwing up barriers to renewables as we speak.
Show threadCrystal_Fish_Caves17h ago
@chris imagine the timeline where Gore fought harder. Can I apply for a transfer?
Show threadChris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸17h ago
@Crystal_Fish_Caves that really feels like the moment everything turned.
Show threadAmgine17h ago

@chris

I wish I still had the link.

There's a website which published the predicted major stages of social impacts due to climate change, in about 1996. And it was still up, frozen in time, when I saw it about 2016. The forecasts were the consensus at the UNFCCC in 1992.

And at that time its accuracy was already frightening.

With the new models for sea rise as we have blown past tipping points, we will likely live to see the great migrations begin.

Show threadChris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸17h ago
@Amgine some say Syria was the first great migration as the civil war was in part caused by historic drought. But ya, I think we will unfortunately see much larger migrations. (we as in you and I)
Show threadAmgine17h ago

@chris

70 m sea rise. I keep thinking I should buy land which will flood, and build clam beds, salmon corrals, while it is still dry. Or start terrafarming the alpines.

Of course, if I had money for that I would already have spent it on building social housing.

Show threadpeachfront17h ago

@chris

when you pray for the price of oil & gas to rise, you are praying for increased drilling of my home &, at this point, the end to the Endangered Species Act & our environmental protections in the Gulf of Mexico

if you're a long-time climate campaigner, please notice that raising the price of oil has never once in the history of earth done anything except make companies & countries drill more because suddenly their product is too valuable to leave in the ground

SIGH

Show threadChris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸17h ago
@peachfront great point. I don't know whether to be hopeful or poke my eyes out, truly.
Show threadpeachfront17h ago

@chris

i'm extremely disheartened, the Endangered Species Act has stood for 50 years, now apparently they're going to just... wipe it away...

i can't help but feel like that's the true purpose of the war, to provide the oil companies with one last grab at huge profits because otherwise their market share would have just continued to go quietly downward as they're replaced with greener tech

Show threadChris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸17h ago
@peachfront i think that is precisely the reason.
Show threadallen15h ago

@peachfront

@chris

If you're comparing today to the 1970s, at the time, Western dependence on oil was higher and sustainable options were either very expensive (hydro and nuclear), or experimental, low-performing and very expensive (wind and solar).

Now that there are more options for countries and their consumers than to "buy the oil at whatever price", higher oil prices won't necessarily lead to more drilling long term, as a price crash when M. E. Facilities come online is predictable 1/2

Show threadallen15h ago

@peachfront

@chris

Also, bear in mind that the Trump admin will dream up their own emergencies to dismantle climate policy, even if they didn't fumble their way into more real ones. See the fake energy emergencies to force coal power plants to stay open in 2025.

Show threadpeachfront15h ago

@allen @chris

they are literally as we speak going to speed up drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and remove environmental obstacles including the Endangered Species Act

i just live here, man, but that's what they're reporting & it isn't like the local news isn't GOP owned...

the ESA in particular is an extremely popular law, they literally DO need the excuse of a war to get rid of it & that is what they are doing so...

Show threadThe Janx Devil17h ago
@chris Yeah, this is pretty much the scenario I thought we all agreed was the worst case. Don’t delay any further because it will be so much more calamitous the longer we wait. And well here we are.
Show threadJason Bowen 🇺🇦17h ago
@chris
There's no room for truly long-term thinking in a world that mostly cares about quarter-to-quarter performance. "Long term" to them is looking at year-over-year trends.
Show threadRon Dyck17h ago
@chris the neoliberal centrists cancelled climate change, silly
Show threadChris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸17h ago
@dyckron OH YA!
Show threadRon Dyck17h ago
@chris 🤣 *whew*
Show threadInnocuous In Innisfil 🇨🇦17h ago

@chris

I hope in 50 years there are enough knowledgeable people left to protest the unveiling of Trump's monument calling him the Spark Plug of Vehicle Electrification...

Show threadChris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸17h ago
@PaulBusch lol! yes!
Show threadOtto W16h ago
@PaulBusch @chris Seriously, look at Europe since Ukranian invasion. Alternatives are 5 years ahead of schedule.
Show threadTomas Stanislawski17h ago
@chris
Want to agree but unfortunately there's a LOT of poor people that's going to suffer. As usual.
Show threadChris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸17h ago
@bike4climate always :(
Show threadBuds_Always_Have_Elbows_Up 🇨🇦16h ago
@chris
If there is a silver lining to this madness, it might be that. But I’m not holding my breath. #Climate
Show threadOtto W16h ago
@chris Reminds me of the adage: when is the best time to plant a tree? 30 years ago. When is the second best time to plant a tree? right now. But why do they changes have to be on the back of so many deaths and so much destruction.
Show threadSon of a George16h ago
@chris For once perhaps a GOOD unintended consequence.
Show thread*|FNAME|*16h ago
@chris
I feel you. It’s a weird situation to be cheering on the blowing up of O&G infrastructure, tankers etc., but it really seems like the only way to move the dial after decades of trying to get people to see reason. 🤦‍♂️
Show threadNetraven15h ago
@chris easily said... yatta yatta.
Show threadCameron15h ago
@chris there is only one slight problem I would have to buy a new car and new cars are crap.
Show threadChris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸13h ago
@cameron29 reuse/convert ice to ev!
Show threadChris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸13h ago
@cameron29 reuse/convert ice to ev!
Show threadCameron3h ago
@chris that would be a cool project to do when my current car end up needing to be replaced.
Show threadChris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸14m ago

@cameron29 I wanted to do it to my old family 1976 Fiat Spider but it wasn’t to be and it went to the scrapper instead.

To be a serious we need to create a recycling and conversion industry in Canada!

Show threadFloreana9h ago
@chris
While I don't hope for war to go on, I do wish the few smart governments that still exist will get the message and adapt accordingly.
Show threadChris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸9h ago
@floreana me too
Show threadZazzoo 🇨🇦8h ago
@chris In the current globalized world order, countries at war are still dependent on one another's trade. Murder is permitted, of course. You can bomb schools and hospitals and commit outright genocides - but its the interruption of a supply chain gets treated as a war crime.
Show threadChris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸8h ago
@zazzoo sick, isn't it.
Show threadDe_Minimis8h ago
@zazzoo @chris
It is argued that Germany lost WWI due to attacking all of its food suppliers.They starved themselves into submission. Can't have that happen again, I guess.
Show threadGaëtan Perrault8h ago

@zazzoo @chris

There's been some serious economics research into this. And oddly, supply chain interruptions are often more deadly than the event itself.

US sanctions regimes have cut off tens of millions of people (if not hundreds) from essential medicines or treatments. Or access to sufficient food.

They see similar things in disaster zones. A very limited number of people typically die in the hurricane or the flood. Most of the deaths come afterwards when people can't get medical attention or essential food supplies are cut off.

In no way does this justify shooting people, that's also terrible.

But with the straight of Hormuz cut off. That lack of fertilizer and fuel could represent far more death outside of Iran than inside it.

Show threadKarl Heinz Häsliprinz7h ago
@chris seeing missiles hit oil refineries gives me complicated feelings. They need to be dismantled. Controlled demolition would have been nicer, but who am I to complain about the rapid and messy approach, given that there was no chance to do the slow and careful demolition?