What can we (all) do?


What are the most powerful climate actions you can take? The expert view


For some very good practical and effective moves.

Go for it?



For our only one planet...
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

What can we (all) do?

One person CAN make a difference

UK breakthrough could slash emissions from cement

Scientists say they've found a way to recycle cement from demolished concrete buildings.
Cement is the modern world's most common construction material, but it is also a huge source of planet-warming gas emissions.
That is because of the chemical reactions when you heat limestone to high temperatures by burning fossil fuels.
…
It is what binds the sand and aggregate in concrete together, and concrete is the most widely used material on the planet after water.
It is also a major driver of climate change. If cement was a country, it would be the third biggest source of emissions after China and the US, responsible for 7.5% of human-made CO2.

Why dig and ship only to have the stuff shipped back in a different form when all that shipping can be eliminated.

$532 million committed to National Battery Strategy, but no plan yet on how to reclaim supply chain.

More than half a billion dollars of federal government funds have been set aside to encourage production of batteries in Australia, but exactly how the scheme will work has not yet been figured out.

A new National Battery Strategy has been released, aiming to make the country a globally competitive battery maker for domestic use and as an export opportunity.

It is part of the government's Future Made in Australia policy, which aims to grasp the economic opportunities of the global transition to net zero emissions, as well as ensuring China does not control the supply chain.

The centrepiece of the strategy is $532 million in financial incentives for the production of batteries. Announced in the budget earlier this month, the funding would be spread over seven years and administered by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

But the scheme, dubbed "Battery Breakthrough", has not yet been formulated, despite funding due to commence in the coming financial year.

"The government will work closely with industry and other stakeholders to design, develop and deliver the Battery Breakthrough," the strategy reads......

It's a much better plan than the opposition's mega dollar nuclear plan, it's also the same mob that stopped solar panels being made here.

Spread the News:


‘Antidotes to despair’: five things we’ve learned from the world’s best climate journalists
wrote:

... Covering Climate Now (CCNow) hail the winners of their organization’s annual global climate journalism awards, and here [they] describe some lessons they have taken from the more than 1,250 entries...

Spread the good word...

Positive action follows?


All on our only one planet...
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

The race is on!


China building two-thirds of world’s wind and solar projects
wrote:

Country on track reach 1,200GW of installed wind and solar capacity by end of 2024 – six years ahead of Beijing’s target

The amount of wind and solar power under construction in China is now nearly twice as much as the rest of the world combined...

Very good going for China.

Why not likewise for the rest of the world??...


All on our only one planet...
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

While our Lord Voldemort tries to convince us that nuclear is the way to go he should really be concentrating on making batteries as we have all the ingredients required to make them here.

California is harnessing solar power thanks to a big battery boom, providing a glimpse into Australia's energy future.

It's not just crystals getting charged in California. In the Golden State, famous for its clifftop mansions, wellness culture and iconic Hollywood hills, big batteries are now setting global trends by transforming the energy system.

California has seen exponential growth in large-scale battery storage in the last five years, offering crystal ball gazing into what Australia's electricity system could look like in a few years' time.

For the first time ever, California's batteries took over gas as the primary source for supplying evening power demand in April, providing "akin to the output from seven large nuclear reactors" one evening, according to the New York Times.........

We need a cleaner country, not a radioactive 1.

One step towards cleanly cleaning up one of our biggest polluters?


‘We’re still in the 1970s with cement’: Norway plant to blaze carbon-free concrete trail
wrote:

... Brevik in Norway. Set to be finished by the end of the year, the facility will be the first of a handful around the world to capture carbon in the production of cement.

If the projects work, they could spur a wave of investments into carbon-free concrete that could prove crucial to meeting the world’s climate targets...

... Concrete heats the planet more than flights and fast fashion, but the industry has taken few steps to clean itself up...

... Heidelberg Materials plans to ship, pipe and then pump the carbon 2.5km beneath the Norwegian seabed. The Northern Lights project, a partnership between oil companies Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies, expects to be ready to receive its first shipment later this year...

There is still that old oil connection...

All on our only one planet!
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Meanwhile...

We reap what we sow?


Birthrates are plummeting worldwide
wrote:

Nations are deploying baby bonuses, subsidised childcare and parental leave to try and reverse a rapidly declining fertility rate – largely to no avail...

Gaia overtakes Darwin?...

All on our only one planet...
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Fossil fuel companies are facing a dilemma.

Commonwealth Bank stops lending to fossil fuel companies without genuine emissions plan.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), the country's largest mortgage lender, is the first major Australian bank to start walking away from funding fossil fuel companies without genuine emissions plans.

In its latest climate report, released on the same day it posted close to $10 billion in full-year net profit, the bank stated that it had already been ditching clients not aligned with the Paris Agreement.

The real-world effects of the bank's new policy could be put to the test as soon as next week, with a major gas loan reportedly being signed off without CBA at the table.

Last year, the bank announced from 2025 it would not provide loans to any coal, oil, or gas companies that did not have a transition plan in line with the Paris goals to avoid dangerous warming. This week's report shows that it is applying that policy early.

CBA's loans to fossil fuels decreased by 92 per cent from 2018 to 2022, from $4 billion to $267 million, according to analysis from Market Forces, a group that campaigns against investments in environmentally destructive projects.

The bank also halved its exposure to oil and gas companies in the past two years from $3.3 billion in 2022 down to $1.7 billion.

Exposure represents the money the bank is set to lose if the investment fails.

The bank's new lending rules are a major win for the climate movement and groups such as Market Forces, which have targeted the bankrollers of fossil fuels for years.......

All very much sooner than anticipated?


US Birthrate Hits New Low...


The Gaia effect?

All on our only one planet...
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

We really need to build our own batteries, not nuclear power stations, and we do have the resources needed to do it.

Australia 'wasting' record amounts of renewable energy as share of wind and solar soars.

Australia is periodically producing such vast amounts of renewable energy that more than a quarter of the wind and solar power generated has to be wasted.

In what analysts say was a glimpse of the nation's green future, authorities recently had to spill — or "curtail" — a record amount of wind and solar power in New South Wales to stop the system being overloaded.

Geoff Eldridge from consultancy Global Power Energy said the share of green energy spilled hit 27.4 per cent at one point, up from the previous high of 27.2 per cent.

Amazingly, the amount of curtailed renewable power was equal to the entire output from coal-fired power stations in NSW at the time.

Mr Eldridge said the new record, set amid warm temperatures and relatively low demand for power, was a hint of what was to come as Australia's energy system became greener.

"It (curtailment) has always sort of been a feature," Mr Eldridge said.

"But if you look at the numbers, we see it's growing each year.

"We have probably 10 per cent of the utility wind and solar energy being curtailed in a 12-month period, and that will probably grow.".......

A thousands-year-old log demonstrates how burying wood can fight climate change

Just two meters of clay soil helped preserve the log for about 3,775 years

Yep https://weburbanist.com/2018/06/26/forest-foundation-the-10000000-underwater-logs-that-hold-up-venice/

One small step:
UK to finish with coal power after 142 years
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y35qz73n8o
As the UK's last coal powered generating station shuts down.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Is this a solution that is being squandered?


The UK Smart Metering Fiasco!


... And the one high risk feature that the UK utilities seized upon was the unintended feature that was added to remotely disconnect/reconnect the user...

How 'smart' is that?...

Rather interesting for how the politics got the introduction/roll-out so badly wrong!

Expensively so...


Only in the UK?
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

I'm not getting my info from U-tube - does that link cover the central problem?

I've had two smart meters fitted now. The 'meter' bit works just fine, but the 'smart' bit doesn't: neither of them has been capable of getting a signal to or from the Government's dedicated radio data network.

There's been a lot of hoo-hah about "my smart meter isn't working", but is anyone asking the counterpart question: "is the Government data network running in my area?" It takes two to tango ...

I'm not getting my info from U-tube

+1