this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2024
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Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.

As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades: Graph of temperature as observed with significant warming, and simulated without added greenhouse gases and other anthropogentic changes, which shows no significant warming

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world: IPCC AR6 Figure 2 - Thee bar charts: first chart: how much each gas has warmed the world.  About 1C of total warming.  Second chart:  about 1.5C of total warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases, offset by 0.4C of cooling from aerosols and negligible influence from changes to solar output, volcanoes, and internal variability.  Third chart: about 1.25C of warming from CO2, 0.5C from methane, and a bunch more in small quantities from other gases.  About 0.5C of cooling with large error bars from SO2.

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[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 20 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

This would be much more efficient if it had other transportation as well.

Like non-electric cars, trains, subways, etc.

It's not too hard to get their efficiency as well.

NEXT DAY EDIT: Should've looked, there's actually a handy chart showing the energy efficiencies of a whole bunch of vehicles and modes of transport just straight up on Wikipedia. This article. Comparing the km/MJ column, we can see:

Walking 4.55

Velomobile with enclosed recumbent: 12.35 (there wasnt a figure for just regular biking)

Solar car: 14.93

Tesla Model 3: 1.76

General Motors EV1: 1.21

All combustion engines are below 1, but here's a few:

VW Passat: 0.33 Cadillac CTS-V: 0.17 Renault Clio: 0.42

There's a whole bunch of other stats though so I suggest checking the table

END EDIT

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Also biking and walking are not necessarily even viable for certain commutes such as any over about 4 miles/ whatever that is in kilometers say 8, and anytime I need to carry heavy luggage / groceries. Or anytime anybody with mobility issues needs to travel.

It's all very well insane if we wanted to buy an e-bike and get rid of their car but that's not really practical.

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 1 points 8 months ago

The break-even distance in urban areas, where it takes the same amount of time to bike, is typically more like 7 miles. That's about half of commutes. Not a 100% replacement for everybody, but big enough to make a meaningful difference.

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

<7km is too far to bike?

Oh man. Well, I agree on the other things you said, but... 6.4 km isn't that much. It's a fair bit, yeah, but not that much. With an e-bike, it's not really even a thing. I chose to use the healthcare in the next city over (I live on the border of two cities) and I have about ~7km whenever I go there. 10-15 min with an ebike. With a regular one it'd be a chore, but it wouldn't take much longer, 20-25 minutes maybe with a loose pace.

But yeah biking definitely can't replace everything. I mean, cargo bikes exist, but still.

With mobility issues, we now have a lot of mobility "scooters" that go about 25km/h per the EU regulations. Like a super buffed up wheelchair. with a sort of chassis. Small enough to fit in the back of a taxi-van that has a disabled lift, but still quick enough to use in a similar way as a bike.

Still tho. I want my cheap rental ecars.

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Bikes don't have to replace everything to make a big difference. Something like "use them as the default choice for shorter distances" makes a big difference.

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

Oh definitely.

I would like to one day see one of those horrible American cities that you can't even traverse on foot / bike, but I don't want to step a foot in the US, with the whole fucked up corruption, military-industrial complex, and the whole budding protofascism.