Climate Situation is Dire. But there is real hope. Read on...

@jeannemayell

This is a link to a video by a "genius inventor" who proposes the most hopeful climate change intervention I have heard about to date. Heretofore, I have been adamantly opposed to geoengineering. Geoengineering refers to human efforts to cool the planet and as unintended consequences are always a concern, I have had a knee-jerk negative reaction. The most commonly discussed geoengineering method is to distribute substances in the atmosphere that would partially block sunlight in order to reduce the amount of radiant energy or incoming heat.

When atmospheric dust or aerosols were discussed, I pictured a grey atmosphere instead of blue skies which depressed me no end. However, this fellow says that we only need to dim sunlight by 1% to help cool the planet, which is invisible to the human eye. (I have not verified his assertions) He mentions this idea far into this video but my adblockers wouldn't allow me to watch it again. Anyway, Jeanne, this is a hopeful bit of information.

Jeff Goodell, author and consultant to NASA, notes that there is no international law that would prohibit a rogue intervention. I proposed that this idea needs to be researched, subject to international governance and perhaps implemented as soon as possible to reduce the amount of heat reaching the earth's surface. We have at least 30 more years of warming otherwise, which we cannot afford.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-19/video-this-genius-inventor-is-taking-on-dinosaurs-global-warming-and-pizza

California just banned the sale of new gas heaters beginning 2030.  That is a huge deal and is on top of their new law going into effect in a few years mandating electric vehicles. 

This is a really big deal.

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/23/1124511549/california-plans-to-phase-out-new-gas-heaters-by-2030

@lovendures This IS a big deal, especially because California is the fifth largest economy in the world. It goes like this for world economies; U.S., China, Japan, Germany, and California. 

Back in 2013, I posted a prediction for the 2020's, that California would become close to being a separate country from the U.S without seceding. I don't know how they manage to be so progressive. But they give us all hope. 

@lovendures @jeanne-mayell

CA is on track to ban gas from all new construction or projects, in fact I believe right now if you are doing new construction you cannot do gas lines for anything except heat and hot water.

For example, if you have a gas fireplace, stove, or dryer, you are allowed to replace or repair them. Eventually the goal is to have new construction that is not even hooked up to the gas lines. Everything will be electric, including heat, with sustainable sources (wind, solar). We have a gas dryer here, which we never had back East, and it's old, so when it breaks, we plan to cap off the gas to it and go electric. Same for my stovetop (wall oven is electric already). The only thing we plan to keep is the gas fireplace. It only gets used maybe 10 times a year and is more eco-friendly than using wood, so I don't feel bad about that.

I wish CA would also ban lawns and golf courses. Next week we are desert-ifying all of the front of our property.  One of you had asked about which plants - so here is a list:

• desert willow tree
• jacaranda tree
• moroccan mound cactus
• pink muhly grass
• hopseed bushes
• agave
• yucca
• barrel cactus
• whales tongue
• indian mallow
• palo verde

Just because they're desert plants doesn't mean they are not colorful or pretty. There are old rose bushes in the flower beds, which we are keeping because they are a type that is drought tolerant and they don't require much water. (Also- budget limitations.)

There's also a crepe myrtle to the side of the driveway, also uses little water so not cutting that down. Of note - this summer has been so hot for so long here I observed about half of the crepe myrtles in our development (most of the trees are pepper and crepe myrtle) have died.

@laura-f your yard sounds like it is going to be beautiful w all of those different plants.   My neighbor has pink muhly grass, and when it blooms it looks like a pink haze floating above the grass- very cool effect.

 Couldn't agree more about golf courses needing to be banned.  They are so destructive to the environment.  And what good are they, anyway? Nobody but rich republicans in ugly clothes ever uses them. That land would be better to turn back to natural areas- or maybe public housing. Almost anything would be a better use.

@laura-f     

It's hard for me to know what to do about the gas appliance situation.

We have gas heat on the lower floor of the house.  And a gas stove and gas on-demand water heater. 

I much prefer cooking with gas so I would not want to give that up, even though I would if necessary. 

The water heater is on-demand so it's pretty energy efficient--- and so I'm not sure how bad it compared to electric. 

And the gas heat... well it *is* Florida so I'm not sure how "evil" that is, either, since it's used less than it would be in the majority of the US.  (The AC on both floors, plus the upstairs heat, are provided via heat pump.)

It would be interesting to see just how "bad" that much gas usage is versus the environmental cost of the material and energy that would be needed to convert everything to electric.  I'm pretty sure I won't consider switching until the current gas units die.  

I've also wanted to put a gas burner in the fireplaces for Years and Years-- they are tiny coal-burners and are not safe to use as-is.   I've been having second thoughts about a gas burner lately.  The alternative is an electric "fire" but I haven't seen one yet that would work with these fireplaces.  Which leads me to wonder really how bad it would be to have a gas fire that was used a few dozen times a year for supplementary heat and ambience.  It's a dilemma.  (Right now I have alcohol burners in the fireplaces but other people who live here think they smell toxic even though I use very clean bio-ethanol.)

Finally--- One upside of gas is that it works even when the power lines are down after a hurricane, so we can still cook and have hot showers. This is very nice--- a fact emphasized when friends and neighbors are complaining about no hot water etc. 🙂 

@ana 

So, there is some interesting hot-off-the-press research on gas stoves from Stanford. It turns out, they leak methane even when they are turned off which is bad for global warming and especially bad for humans inhaling it.

https://news.stanford.edu/2022/01/27/rethinking-cooking-gas/

The good news is that the Inflation Reduction Act offers homeowner generous incentives to get rid of those stoves. Check the link to see what you might get. 800+ in some instances. And there are incentives for many other appliances, EV cars, etc. Biden means to jump start the shift off of natural gas which is methane, a powerful global warming gas. The leaks in mining and pipelines make it as bad as coal, for the most part.

I have cooked with gas (I cook a fair amount) but induction stoves are much better. Much faster boil time, take the pan off the stove and the heat stop because it is based on magnetism. Don't go real high end--just shoot for the middle-price stoves (still not cheap). Otherwise, simple electric glass tops work pretty well, too.

https://www.rewiringamerica.org/app/ira-calculator

https://www.electrificationcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/SAFE_1-sheet_Webinar.pdf

In terms of heating homes, the shift is to electric which will mostly be air-source heat pumps, or mini-splits. One can install ground source heat pumps but they are ~60K per household! If you insulate your home well and use heat sparingly, your money might be better spend elsewhere.

The most confusing appliance, in terms of which is most climate friendly, is the hot water heater. There are incentives for heat pump water heaters (which conserve energy) but they use a refrigerant that is a powerful global warming gas. They hope this gas will never escape into the atmosphere, but I am of the opinion that they probably will.  Most water heaters poop out at roughly 10 years so replacing them with newer electric ones will be more efficient. On-demand hot water heaters may or may not be efficient; it depends on how much hot water you use. Opt for cold water cycles in the washing machine and you are good to go.

If your refrigerator is over 10 years old, it is probably less-efficient than it could be. They are energy hogs, as are clothes dryers. Oh, it takes less energy to dry clothes on lower heat for several cycles rather than hot heat once. Plus, it is easier on your clothes. (The sun works, too.)

If you like the ethanol fireplace burners, keep them. They are cleaner than gas.

I think it is hard for the average consumer to know what choices to make; I wish we had a 1-5 green rating system.

The Arizona community I live in was built in 1994 and does not have gas.  It is a "Good Sense" energy efficient home. We are original owners of our house and there was no option for gas, just electric.  It was built to what was high energy efficiency standards at the time.

The home my parents bought in 1971 in a new California development was also all electric, no gas.  It was touted it back then as being a "Gold Medallion" home development.  As the article below mentions, yes, our doorbell had that medallion on it with the family holding hands. (Boy does this image bring back memories.) 

https://www.thespruce.com/gold-medallion-home-definition-1821516

One nice thing about an all electric home in California, you don't fear a natural gas leak after an earthquake. 

When we bought our house here in AZ, our water bill was really cheep each month.  I remember paying well under $30 in the mid 1990's most months.  We now fall anywhere from low $200 to nearly $400 a month, depending on how many people are living at home/visiting and how hot the summer is as we have a pool and water evaporates quickly in summer heat. With the new Colorado River water restrictions being implemented this January, it will more expensive.  Our state will lose 21% of its water allotment.

My head hurts for so many different reasons just thinking about it.  

Posted by: @raincloud

Opt for cold water cycles in the washing machine and you are good to go.

and you don't have to separate colors when you wash in cold water, which helps make fewer loads (esp if you buy old clothes from resale shops- most of them have been washed a million times already, so not likely to color anything else in the laundry).

My house came with central gas heat, a gas stove, and a gas water heater.  I certainly have my concerns about the possibility of gas leaking into the house, and I haven't really done my research into the environmental impacts of it all.  I suppose since the gas is termed "natural gas" I assumed it was a relatively clean source of energy. 

I live in Virginia and according to a website called "Virginia Energy Sense" ( https://www.virginiaenergysense.org/energy-101/about-your-power/ ) 61% of energy in Virginia is made with natural gas anyway, 29% is nuclear, less than 4% is coal (I assumed much more), and the rest "comes from hydroelectric, renewables, petroleum and other sources." 

Other than concerns about gas leaks, I'm mostly indifferent about whether gas or electricity is better... but there are two major things I like about having gas appliances.  If the power goes out for an extended time for any reason, I can still cook and I still have hot water.  I remember living at a home with everything electric after Hurricane Isabelle in 2003.  We were without electricity for nearly two weeks.  During that time, I couldn't cook a decent meal (I vaguely remember eating cold ravioli directly from a can) and I had to take cold showers (brrr...).  Since the gas lines are underground, they are much less likely to be affected by falling trees, cars running into electric poles, transformers blowing in heavy storms, and other things that affect above ground power lines.  With more and bigger storms expected due to climate change, I fear our current electric system will become more vulnerable to outages.

Of course, I think the ideal would be for everyone to have self-contained solar panel systems for their own houses with backup battery supplies for rainy, cloudy days. 

... and we generally don't have to worry about earthquakes in Virginia so not the same threat to gas lines as California and other places.