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#World2 - Energy

Energy consumption and management is the third train of thought, I want to talk about in this series.

Energy, on the one hand, is by far the biggest driver of the climate crisis. On the other hand, the world in central Europe faces another crisis fired by heat and drought and by the war in Ukraine and our dependency on Russian gas and oil.

For the climate, the complex topic splits up into four interdependent areas:

- electricity (43%)
- industrial consumption (24%)
- traffic (21%)
- heating (12%)

More detailed numbers with sources will follow. This touches only the energy
part, the whole climate crisis is much more complex because it entails other
more efficient greenhouse gases, deforestation and tipping points.

I have the feeling that I have to increase the frequency of these posts because
every day something new happens in that sector and I need to get behind that. So
much for the short kickstart into the energy topic.

#energy #climatecrisis @vegan

#World2: Problem chain

In the past posts connected in this chain here, I had a short glimpse of the three topics (Traffic, Food and Energy). But I've already seen that any of these fields is utterly complex and never black and white. So before I go into more details on each of them, let's go back to the basic problem.

Earth thankfully has a greenhouse effect. It would be a cold dead place of -18°C if it wasn't there. This effect is caused by gases in the atmosphere that are transparent in visual light and opaque in infrared light. Mainly water vapour (with short term effects) and CO₂ (with complex long-term lifecycles).

We have increased the amount of CO₂ dramatically in the last 100 years - from 320 to 420 (by 30%) in the last 60 years alone. We have seen that Earth is significantly heating up. CO₂ pollution is coming from burning fossile fuels - like coal (C) or gas (CH4).

We use the energy coming from there for global wealth, so we can't just stop it.

#climatecrisis @vegan

#World2: Dimensions

A problem that I have with the climate catastrophe lies in the magnitudes of numbers. When someone says "this emits 5 kg of CO2 equivalent", what does that mean? It's totally abstract.

So I think, we should make it more concrete. When the IPCC, the main organisation that tracks climate change, released their reposts, they came up with a budget that we have if we want to stay below the 1.5°C. It's 420 Billion tons. For the world in 30 years.

Divided by 30 and the average expected population of 8,73 Billion People, this makes 1,6 tons per year for every one of us. This is my new reference.

What we actually emit:

- Germany: 539%
- China: 536% (astonishing, right?)
- USA: 1091%
- World average: 400%

In comparison:

- the german forest absorbs (-) 46,4 %
- Flight Hamburg - Malaga (Spain) 48,1 % (by train: 4,9 %)
- Flight Hamburg - Sydney 675 %
- Niederaußem (a single lignite power plant) 12,5 % (per capita)

#climatecatastrophe #greenhouseeffect @vegan

#World2: Energy Sources

Now we know that we in Germany emit four and a half times more than we are supposed to (539% of the budget). We also know that energy is the single most important source of greenhouse gas emissions. But where do we lose that much CO₂? Here are some case studies.

The primary energy consumption in 2020 was 143 GJ/Person*a. The coal power plant Niederaußem contributed about 0,7% to that energy but it uses up 22,2% of our annual CO₂ Budget.

In comparison, an average gas turbine emits 670 g/kWh. In Germany, we consume 65 TWh/a through gas, which is 12,6%. This uses up 32,7% of our budget.

Another scenario: An average person needs 47,7 m² of living space in Germany. A 20-year-old house has a standard of 75 kWh/m²a. If you use gas, this equals an emission of 2,3 t/a or almost 150% of the budget. Gigantic. If you live in a passive house, you can reduce that to 30%.

#greenhousegas #gas #coal

@vegan

#World2: How Much Do We Need to Save?

We know now that we're overshooting more than five times. But also the budget is gone by 2050. At that point, we are not supposed to emit anything anymore. What is left is what the trees, moors and oceans absorb. ...

#CarbonSink, #Forest, #ClimateCrisis, #Energy

@vegan

Full Post: https://octahedron.world/storylines/world-2/06-how-much-to-save?c=mst

#World2: Heating

We seem to have usable solutions for electricity and transport, as it seems. But the third column, heating your living room, seems to be the biggest challenge for carbon neutrality. There are a lot of buildings with a lot of shitty technology built in. So the problem is highly decentral. ...

#ClimateCrisis, #Energy

@vegan

Full Post: https://octahedron.world/storylines/world-2/07-heating?c=mst

#World2: Special: Coal

I had to change my publishing schedule a bit for a pressing topic: Coal! Coal is currently the dirtiest of all energy sources. Therefore it's obvious that so many people fight against sacrificing whole villages like Lützerath for lignite open-cast mining. ...

#Luetzerath, #Lignite, #Coal, #ClimateCrisis, #Energy

@vegan

Full Post: https://octahedron.world/storylines/world-2/08-coal?c=mst

#World2: Savings in Heating

I was already diving into the huge black hole of the heating sector and its problems to go climate neutral. In fact, it's not solvable by only exchanging technologies. We have to save energy. ...

#ClimateCrisis, #Energy

Full Post: https://octahedron.world/storylines/world-2/09-heating-savings?c=mst