Heat in the home

[al_yrpal]

Trouble is there are 1.5 billion Indians.... and they all need power. Not to mention more than 1 billion in China also a coal dependent economy. Then theres the good ole USA.

We are doomed...

Just nipping down to the cellar its cooler down there..

Al

[Nearholmer]

Given the way trade works, and certainly the way the climate works, it is increasingly irrelevant to talk about individual countries.

[francovendee]

We may all be living underground in years to come.
Certainly big picture windows will be a disadvantage.
Lovely views from the windows or views of the searing heat overlooking a parched landscape?

When we bought this french stone house 24 years ago we used to say because of the small windows it was a bit dark inside. How glad we are now for those small windows.
Touching 42° on the shaded patio. Indoors it's a steady 25° with one desk top fan running.

Cataract operation tomorrow morning, luckily it's a modern hospital with a/c.

[Jdsk]

Cataract operation tomorrow morning, luckily it's a modern hospital with a/c.

I hope that all goes well.

Jonathan

[francovendee]

Thank you.

[rjb]

Mrs had her cataract's done recently, only in for a couple of hours. They insisted she was collected from the waiting area after the op and couldn't drive for a week. Are you cycling to your hospital.
Hope it goes well. Mrs rjb was impressed.

[francovendee]

Mrs had her cataract's done recently, only in for a couple of hours. They insisted she was collected from the waiting area after the op and couldn't drive for a week. Are you cycling to your hospital.
Hope it goes well. Mrs rjb was impressed.

No, my wife is taking me. I want to find out how many days before I'm allowed out for a gentle cycle.
It's a routine operation but I'll be glad when it's done.
I watch a lot of medical programs showing cutting edge operations. I can watch anything without feeling squeamish apart from, you've guessed it, eye operations

[Jdsk]

"Cutting edge"

: - )

Jonathan

[roubaixtuesday]

Trouble is there are 1.5 billion Indians.... and they all need power. Not to mention more than 1 billion in China also a coal dependent economy.

There's one of me, and one of you.

And everyone everywhere is just one.

Starting with oneself rather than counting others, especially when the others being counted are less emitting than we are, seems the right approach.

[Sweep]

We may all be living underground in years to come.
Certainly big picture windows will be a disadvantage.
Lovely views from the windows or views of the searing heat overlooking a parched landscape?

When we bought this french stone house 24 years ago we used to say because of the small windows it was a bit dark inside. How glad we are now for those small windows.
Touching 42° on the shaded patio. Indoors it's a steady 25° with one desk top fan running.

mm - not sure I agree. My house has big big windows - 60s built.
If you want to block the light/heat you can always close the curtains/black-out curtains. Just as foreign types use shutters. And despite blazing heat of late it isn't a year round norm just yet. Big windows in cooler times of the year can be great for letting sun heat into a room. I often make use of this on one side of my house.
Am no fan of houses with small windows - they seemed to become popular in UK new builds at the height of Thatcherism - which also coincided with room size regs being trashed as just so passee.
i think the idea was maybe that it lowered heat loss but from some of the 80s post 80s wonders I have experienced it seems that you often have to turn the lights on even on a perfectly bright day. Bonkers.

[Cugel]

Trouble is there are 1.5 billion Indians.... and they all need power. Not to mention more than 1 billion in China also a coal dependent economy.

There's one of me, and one of you.

And everyone everywhere is just one.

Starting with oneself rather than counting others, especially when the others being counted are less emitting than we are, seems the right approach.

One often comes across the potted opinion that, "Britain only produces 1% of the CO2 produced by the whole world, therefore there's little point in us bothering to do net zero things". This is a bogus argument at all levels.

For example, around 1/3rd of global CO2 production is made by a large group of nations generating less than 2% each of it per nation. They all need to eliminate their small 0.2 - 2% production if 1/3rd of the worlds production is to be eliminated, therefore.

The same applies down to the individual level, as you've explained. However, various individuals (millions in the 1st world, for example) will argue that their little reduction will make no difference so they'll continue with their gas guzzlers, flying about, golloping down a pound of tortured-beast meat every day and so forth.

*************
There is an argument that suggests that, since we individuals are mostly self-centred little skinbags with no sense of responsibility for what we do, governments should act as Very Large Nanny figures, pulling us all by the ear or short and curlies to do the right thing. [Really, that's what governments and their law-giving/enforcing have always been about - making us conform to various behaviours and preventing us from doing other things ..... even if once upon a time the encouraged behaviour was to kill foreigners and steal their stuff and the forbidden behaviours were all about not working agin' the status quo whilst being dutiful cannon fodder or wage slaves. (Actually, these modes are still in favour with various current governments)].

But I digress.

Those that need the most ear or sideburn yanking by Nanny in respect of the curbing of planet-burning and toxification behaviours are the Big Boys and Girls who are "the ringleaders" of rabid individualism - i.e Big Business and its many helpmeets, who encourage we lower-order ninnies to go about irresponsibly, just as the Big Boys and Girls do, trashing the planet for our momentary pleasures and profits.

But governments have somehow been bought and suborned by Big Business. Few governments do much to serve the interests of the voters, these days, despite all the chatter and wishful thunks. Net Zero is a matter mostly for lip service, with the only net zero-achieving things allowed being those that will add to the profits of Big Business.

E-cars, solar panels et al may work to reduce CO2 production but they also work to make Vast New Profits for those capitalist gharks and hoos. The same gharks and hoos are also still at the oily-gassy production, since new profits from net zero stuff must be added to the old profits from oily-gas, not be a mere replacement for them.

**********
Are the various oligarchs selling their New Zealand bolt-holes now and buying up new ones in the Artic, in the hope that it won't catch fire there? Or are they ALL now planning their escape to Paradise on Mars? Some seem to be hoping for transcendence into virtual reality via (or even as) an AI. Daft as brushes, they are.

[francovendee]

We may all be living underground in years to come.
Certainly big picture windows will be a disadvantage.
Lovely views from the windows or views of the searing heat overlooking a parched landscape?

When we bought this french stone house 24 years ago we used to say because of the small windows it was a bit dark inside. How glad we are now for those small windows.
Touching 42° on the shaded patio. Indoors it's a steady 25° with one desk top fan running.

mm - not sure I agree. My house has big big windows - 60s built.
If you want to block the light/heat you can always close the curtains/black-out curtains. Just as foreign types use shutters. And despite blazing heat of late it isn't a year round norm just yet. Big windows in cooler times of the year can be great for letting sun heat into a room. I often make use of this on one side of my house.
Am no fan of houses with small windows - they seemed to become popular in UK new builds at the height of Thatcherism - which also coincided with room size regs being trashed as just so passee.
i think the idea was maybe that it lowered heat loss but from some of the 80s post 80s wonders I have experienced it seems that you often have to turn the lights on even on a perfectly bright day. Bonkers.

I'm afraid large windows and closing curtains will not have as good an effect as small windows and exterior shutter in keeping out the heat.
Winter time sun coming through our window is welcome but I don't want bigger ones.
Personally I find coping with high temperatures more taxing than low temperatures.

[al_yrpal]

China has the Gobi Desert, possibly ideal for wind turbines and solar panels.

The USA has several large deserts.

India has at least one desert. Looks likely to be the worlds most populous country.

Digging up coal and burning it to produce power is apparently the easiest option... With CO2 consequences.

Keyboard warriors please...

Al

[axel_knutt]

One often comes across the potted opinion that, "Britain only produces 1% of the CO2 produced by the whole world, therefore there's little point in us bothering to do net zero things". This is a bogus argument at all levels.

For example, around 1/3rd of global CO2 production is made by a large group of nations generating less than 2% each of it per nation. They all need to eliminate their small 0.2 - 2% production if 1/3rd of the worlds production is to be eliminated, therefore.

The same applies down to the individual level, as you've explained. However, various individuals (millions in the 1st world, for example) will argue that their little reduction will make no difference so they'll continue with their gas guzzlers, flying about, golloping down a pound of tortured-beast meat every day and so forth.

Then there's production vs consumption. Much of China's emissions are produced manufacturing goods for export to here, when you look at consumption-based emissions, the difference between UK and China all but disappears, on a per capita basis. And there's another problem: the right wingers often argue that a small country should be allowed to emit as much as a large one, with no acknowledgement that emissions are proportional to the population you're providing for.

Then the other issue is that the climate change we have is determined by the total cumulative emissions since the start of industrialisation, not just today's emissions. When you look at the total emissions, again per capita, the facts are very clear:
.

.
The UK is the biggest culprit in the world, after the USA, with China a long way behind. Lecturing them about cutting down whilst we do nothing ourselves just won't wash, it's simply shouting "We're Alright Jack", and pulling up the ladder behind us.

There is an argument that suggests that, since we individuals are mostly self-centred little skinbags with no sense of responsibility for what we do, governments should act as Very Large Nanny figures, pulling us all by the ear or short and curlies to do the right thing. [Really, that's what governments and their law-giving/enforcing have always been about - making us conform to various behaviours and preventing us from doing other things ..... even if once upon a time the encouraged behaviour was to kill foreigners and steal their stuff and the forbidden behaviours were all about not working agin' the status quo whilst being dutiful cannon fodder or wage slaves. (Actually, these modes are still in favour with various current governments)].

If people could be trusted to act in the collective interest of the community and not their own self interest, anarchy would work, and there'd be no need for governments at all. The reason nothing gets done about climate change is because anarchy is exactly what we have an an international level: there's no global government, so each country acts in its own self interest.

Psychology professor Steven Pinker tells an amusing tale about how as a teenager he was forever lecturing his parents on the merits of anarchy: then one day the Canadian Mounties went on strike, and within hours the High Street was filled with rampaging looters. Nigel Farage and his followers are like teenage Pinkers.

[axel_knutt]

If you want to block the light/heat you can always close the curtains/black-out curtains. Just as foreign types use shutters. And despite blazing heat of late it isn't a year round norm just yet. Big windows in cooler times of the year can be great for letting sun heat into a room.

Curtains are not the same as shutters, by the time the sun reaches the curtains it's already in the room heating up the contents. I've just hung a shade outside my window, and the difference it makes is huge, curtains were largely useless.

The problem with relying on direct radiation from the sun for warmth is that it's modulated by the clouds, so even in winter you're perpetually either too hot or too cold as the clouds drift past. It's the same with clothing, if you wear dark clothes: always switching between too hot and too cold, even in winter.