How the US Cut Climate-Changing Emissions While Its Economy More Than Doubled (theconversation.com)
- Reference: 0179988450
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/11/07/0029244/how-the-us-cut-climate-changing-emissions-while-its-economy-more-than-doubled
- Source link: https://theconversation.com/how-the-us-cut-climate-changing-emissions-while-its-economy-more-than-doubled-268763
> Countries around the world have been discussing the need to rein in climate change for three decades, yet global greenhouse gas emissions -- and global temperatures with them -- keep rising. When it seems like we're getting nowhere, it's useful to step back and examine the progress that has been made. Let's take a look at the United States, historically the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter. Over those three decades, the U.S. population soared by 28% and the economy, as measured by gross domestic product adjusted for inflation, more than doubled. Yet U.S. emissions from many of the activities that produce greenhouse gases -- transportation, industry, agriculture, heating and cooling of buildings -- [2]have remained about the same over the past 30 years .
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> Transportation is a bit up; industry a bit down. And electricity, once the nation's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, has seen its emissions drop significantly. Overall, the U.S. is still among the countries with the highest [3]per capita emissions , so there's room for improvement, and [4]its emissions (PDF) haven't fallen enough to put the country on track to meet its pledges under the 10-year-old Paris climate agreement. But U.S. [5]emissions are down about 15% over the past 10 years.
The report mentions how the U.S. managed to replace coal with cheaper, more efficient natural-gas plants while rapidly scaling wind, solar, and battery storage as their costs fell. At the same time, major gains in appliance, lighting, and building efficiency flattened per-capita power use. This also coincided with improved vehicle fuel economy that helped keep transportation emissions in check.
[1] https://slashdot.org/~alternative_right
[2] https://theconversation.com/how-the-us-cut-climate-changing-emissions-while-its-economy-more-than-doubled-268763
[3] https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions
[4] https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/2024-12/United%20States%202035%20NDC.pdf
[5] https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks
Get solar panels (Score:2)
It's power generation that you actually own, and can't be taken away from you unless they physically come for it.
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Sure, if you've got an extra $50K sitting around!
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Where are you getting that number from? I paid $6,500 after the tax credits for a 4.1KW system. That included permitting, installation, panels...everything.
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[1]https://www.energysage.com/sol... [energysage.com]
A 4.1 kW system will not run an entire home, just a few appliances, lights, and fans. If you live in the south where air conditioning is mandatory, you need at least a 20 kW system for a typical home, plus you need battery storage for nights and cloudy days, that will run you at least another $10K.
[1] https://www.energysage.com/solar/much-20000-watt-20-kw-solar-system-cost/
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That's a great price. Used to be $2.50-$3.00 per watt after credits. But perhaps @Tony_Isaac is trying to put a 20kW system up.
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You at least used to be able to pay that kind of money (well, $30k) for a professional setup with new stuff.
But even the new stuff is cheaper now, it's well documented, anticipates DIY, and is just a lot easier to do now, and used panels are available for insanely cheap prices.
A much cheaper DIY system can get you blackout protection and will pay for itself in less years than you might think. (If you're unlucky enough to be using PG&E, that's something like a 3-year payoff.)
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I think your numbers omit the required battery to run off the grid at night or on cloudy days.
In Texas, where power prices are 12-14 cents per kWh, it would take more than 15 years to pay for even your $30K price tag.
That is because (Score:2)
we are looking at the wrong measure. How about looking at consumption rather than just production. North America shifted production to Asia but still consumes the products manufactured by the polluting countries. So no I would say NOT.
One word answer to this one (Score:1)
Fracking.
Borderline free natgas produces same amount of energy while emitting approximately half of CO2 emissions of coal. So if you care about CO2 emissions, and you have the kind of geology current US fracking areas have, you go all out on it. Cheaper reliable power than coal.
Problem is, that is indeed a function of rather unique ecology in US. Where US has something like 12 layers of oil and gas that can be fracked in its best fracking areas, EU's best areas have about 5. Horrific regulatory nonsense whe
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> Horrific regulatory nonsense where government rather than people owns what's under privately owned land also guarantees that property owners are massively incentivized to fight fracking, as they get all the downsides and none of the windfall.
This is normal in the US.
I do not own the mineral rights to my property, and most people in states with extensive mineral exploitation have severed estates as well.
Re: down 15% (Score:2)
Yea, we used to be kind of a big deal.
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Do you not think we still are?
Still over a quarter of the entire planetary economy.
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It's a bit fairer to pin it against economic output.
We're viewing CO2 as a cost, so it really should be compared against the other side of that equation.
Per-capita is also alright, but it's just not the whole picture.The US 4% of the world's population, but it's also 26% of the world's economy.
Got rid of those damn incandescent bulbs (Score:2)
LEDs for the win!
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Huh? Incandescents have been banned in the US since 2023, and were phasing out long before that. And lighting is only about 10-12% of a typical home's energy usage. [1]https://mygreenmontgomery.org/... [mygreenmontgomery.org] If you want to drive down electricity usage, focus on air conditioning and heating, which uses almost half of the power consumed in an average home.
[1] https://mygreenmontgomery.org/2020/what-uses-the-most-energy-in-your-home/#:~:text=Here%E2%80%99s%20what%20uses%20the%20most%20energy%20in%20your%20home
ignoring AI (Score:2)
Most bubble economies output little CO2, since they are fake and built on hopes, dreams, and sweet little lies.
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Potemkin data centers?
\o/ (Score:1)
Was it by measuring emissions in a parallel universe?
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Yes, one where it's more efficient to burn natural gas, dumbass.
On CO2 we did good, but on Methane? (Score:2)
We got better results by moving a lot of coal burning to natural gas, but the increased production and movement of that natural gas means we're spitting out a lot more waste Methane, now. And it's a way bigger effect greenhouse gas than CO2. Luckily it doesn't last as long.
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Methane is a big deal. Even if it doesn't "last as long"- it still turns into CO2 once it's done.
However- "waste methane" is very little due to natural gas. It's typically flared (converted directly to CO2 without the years of extra sunlight absorption), and it is absolutely dwarfed by methane produced by domestic waste in landfills.
Exported Emissions (Score:2)
We export a bunch of emissions. A lot of US oil and natural gas gets exported and burned elsewhere. The emissions from producing all the stuff we import are produced elsewhere. The planet doesn't really care where the emissions come from.
Left out loss of manufacturing (Score:5, Interesting)
The US shifted away from a manufacturing economy. It is more agriculture/mining/Petroleum, and more service. Less industry.
We moved a lot of the particularly high energy industries out of the country, so this helped our climate, at the cost of China where those industries moved.
Agree and why 30 years, 20 is a better number (Score:1)
Conveniently, the article left out that China has far surpassed the USA in greenhouse pollution emissions for the last 20 years, since 2006 and has far surpassed the USA in total amount of emissions during that time to where they doubled it in 2021.