Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸1d ago

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

Show threadMilitaryG1d 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🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸1d 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 🌌🍔🤪1d 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 threadMilitaryG1d 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 threadIcooIey1d 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 threadDanneau22h ago

@IcooIey @MilitaryG @Space_Burger_Steve @chris

I'm guessing it's been a real uphill battle all along. (brfffpt!)

Show threadIcooIey21h ago
@danneau @MilitaryG @Space_Burger_Steve @chris I don’t think pumped hydro gets enough credit or press. It’s over 88% of energy storage capacity in the US, 43 plants with 22 GW generating capacity.
Show threadJean-François Mezei

@IcooIey @danneau @MilitaryG @Space_Burger_Steve @chris Hydro Québec prefers a simpler method: don't let the water down the dam unless you need the power. So when windmills and solar produce, they dynamicallyreduce how many turbines spin in order to balance prduction with demand, all the while saving water in the reservoir for when it is needed.

"As the river flows" dams can't do that, so it makes sense to use excess power they produce to pump water in artificial reservoir.

Apr 3 at 6:01pmWeb