Links tagged “development”

Radiators would have to run 10 degrees cooler under changes to homes needed for Britain to hit net zero, the public has been warned. The Government has said it wants 600,000 heat pumps replacing gas boilers every year by 2028 to help decarbonise the country’s home heating, which accounts for 10 per cent of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions.

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Homeowners will have to put up with central heating that is cooler by 10 degrees C if Britain is to hit climate change targets - "UK is half way to net zero emissions but next stage requires 'personal changes'"

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Alexander C. R. Hammond: "Prosperity frees people to protect the environment. ... the lockdowns may cause massive environmental destruction in the long term. Simply put, people can afford to care about the environment only when they have enough income to cover their basic needs. If their survival depends on killing an endangered animal or cutting down a rare tree, then so be it." ... 

"The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis posits that environmental damage increases in tandem with economic growth, but only until a certain level of income is reached. Once people are wealthy enough not to have to worry about day-to-day survival, environmental degradation stops, and ecosystems begin to recover. The environmental scientist Jesse H. Ausubel, for example, suggests that once a nation achieves a GDP per capita of $6,200 (in 2021 dollars), deforestation stops or afforestation occurs."

"The lockdowns have already wreaked havoc on endangered species and protected habitats in the developing world. In Kenya, the killing of giraffes has skyrocketed. Given that a tonne of giraffe meat is worth about $1,000 (i.e., almost seven months of the average Kenyan salary), it is unsurprising that desperate locals have resorted to slaughtering the endangered animal. Kenya’s Mara Elephant Project also recorded that illegal logging in the region peaked in the months following the first lockdown. In Botswana, government workers had to evacuate dozens of critically endangered black rhinos from the Okavango Delta after six of the animals were found dead after the lockdowns were implemented."

State energy policies have made California electricity and fuel prices among the highest in the nation which have been contributory to the rapid growth of “energy poverty” for the 18 million (45 percent of the 40 million Californians) that represent the Hispanic and African American populations of the state. ...

Currently, underdeveloped countries, mostly from energy starved countries, are experiencing about 11,000,000 child deaths every year of which more than 70 per cent are attributable to six causes: diarrhea, malaria, neonatal infection, pneumonia, preterm delivery, or lack of oxygen at birth. About 29,000 children under the age of five – 21 each minute – die every day, mainly from preventable causes.

Ambient noise generated by human activity such as travel and machinery dropped by 50% last year, researchers find - "The weeks during lockdown were the quietest period we have on record," said seismologist John Clinton, referring to data archives covering the last 20 years. - 

Lower background noise during lockdowns also means small earthquakes that otherwise would not be observed have been detected in some places.

For Biden, climate change is a chance to wield his executive power to your detriment. For “green businesses,” climate change is the way to redirect massive amounts of taxpayer money into their pockets. For John Kerry, climate change is a way to reemphasize just how special he is. And for you? Well, for you, climate change is about suffering. According to David Ismay, Under Secretary for Climate Change to Massachusett’s Governor Charlie Baker, the government needs to “break your will.”

Net Zero, Climate Action, Build Back Better, and the Great Reset are some of the names for policies aimed at expediting the transition of the global energy sector from fossil fuel to renewable technology. The goal? Saving the planet from climate apocalypse. But there is a huge hurdle to make this transition a reality. Most of the world’s primary energy comes from coal, oil, and gas.