#not just energy production but CARBON CAPTURE

[sleep-safe]

aside from fertilizer, algae can be used for biofuel!

so the current main character of twitter are the algae tanks that are meant to function as "liquid trees" if u wanna call it that and people are very mad at them despite them being a cool and potentially useful concept. before anyone gets mad on this post in case it gets Literally Any Notes, notes:

algae is really really good at producing oxygen. more efficient than trees actually. it already produces like, grain of salt bc im getting a few diff numbers here from google, 50ish percent of the oxygen on earth. dw shes good at this.

no the scientists dont want to REPLACE trees thats just a shitty headline. the actual potential uses of these are plopping them down in places where you cant put another tree for whatever reason (including "theres a tree right there and it needs space"), in addition to trees bc as stated its Even Better at oxygen making, or when youre waiting for the trees to grow bc. they take a while.

if the tanks are as efficient as the scientists claim, one tank=two 10 year old trees. thats good! nice supplement to trees while youre waiting for them to grow and shit.

the one pictured also is a bench with solar lights and ports to charge your phone. thats nice!

apparently no maintenance isnt hard u just remove some of the algae once a month (which can then be used as fertilizer!) add some water and boom ur good 👍

stop saying "trees are free and require no maintenance" thats just false. the cost and maintenance are worth it!! but they do in fact have Cost And Maintenance. many good things in society are like this! please appreciate the work that goes into trees actually ty

again. not replacing trees. In Addition To. Alongside. Friends. <3.

ANYWAY, with those common things no one on twitter seems to understand out of the way, honestly im frustrated but (mostly) not ANGRY at the ppl not understanding that stuff. like, if u read past the headline u would know it, and i really wish yall would, but hey at least i understand being mislead by that awful fucking headline. i get it!!

what i am fucking pissed about is the people calling it ugly and saying no one wants slime tanks fuck you i DO want a slime tank

"but ohhh it looks like SLIME and DYSTOPIAN and blah blah blah" fuck YOU that slime is my BOYFRIENDS and i LOVE THEM. look at that gastly green color! it looks straight out of a mad scientists lab! its BEAUTIFUL!

i love algae and they are my friend and my lover and i will not stand for this fucking slander. you are all just too fucking weak to see the beauty in their hard work. you are blinded by tree propaganda, and just like bee propaganda you forget that there are OTHERS working day in and day out too. i love trees and (i LOOOOOVE bees btw) but do NOT forget the hard work done by algae.

if these things are as efficient as they claim then YES AMAZING LOVE IT, throw the cool slime benches hither and thither! mayhaps decorate them with a lil cool etched art (without compromising the efficiency) or some Fun Facts about how cool algae is and how NO THEY ARENT TREE REPLACEMENTS THEYRE TREE FRIENDS!!! THEY ARE FRIENDS!!!!!!!!! i would love nothing more than sitting at a bus stop under the green glow of my algae friends and i have been on this fucking train since i first saw cool concept art of this shit like a decade ago on tumblr. you CANNOT convince me giant green tanks of slop are anything BUT perfection.

and if anything i think they should fucking lean in to the slime thing. make some that look like giant test tubes. get nickelodeon to sponser a couple. teenage mutant ninja turtles crossover. stop listening to the fucking normies trying to convince you that Slime Bad and think of the fucking posslimbilities. EMBRACE THE SLIME.

[misfitwashere]

November 12, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

NOV 13

The backdrop for today’s news is that Republicans in the Senate will vote by secret ballot tomorrow for a new Senate majority leader. That person will control the Senate calendar, deciding what measures will be taken up by the Senate for consideration and thus wielding power over Trump’s legislative plans. 

Trump and his sidekick Elon Musk, along with MAGA leaders and influencers, are backing Florida senator Rick Scott, who has signaled a willingness to do whatever Trump wants. Senators John Thune (R-SD) and John Cornyn (R-TX) are also staunch party members but are not as closely associated with the MAGA faction of the party.

MAGA control of the Senate is at stake, and Trump and his team are pushing their extremist agenda so aggressively it will be impossible for Senate Republicans to pretend they didn’t know what was at stake if they vote to empower the MAGAs. 

Today the Trump transition team floated the idea that Trump could sign an executive order creating a board of retired senior military personnel that would review high-ranking officers and recommend removing any they deemed unfit for leadership. Vivian Salama, Nancy A. Youssef, and Lara Seligman reported in the Wall Street Journal that such a board would enable Trump to purge the military of the generals whom he considers insufficiently loyal to him. Generals who refused to carry out what they considered unconstitutional orders—including using the military against U.S. civilians—infuriated Trump during his first term.

The chairman of VoteVets, retired major general Paul Eaton, warned that such a plan would turn the U.S. military into Trump loyalists. Eaton also warned military personnel what that would mean for the troops, suggesting that folks should “take a look at Stalin’s officer purges in early WWII that resulted in the Soviet, now-Russian Army, enduring incompetence and the use of its rank-and-file troops as cannon meat. The American military is the envy of the world’s militaries, given its efficiency for military effect and stunningly low casualty count. Probably a good model to keep.”

Transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said, “[T]he American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail. He will deliver.” But Trump’s claims of a mandate are wrong. As vote counts continue to come in, it appears that Trump’s margin of victory was actually quite slim. 

Trump has also vowed to eliminate the Biden administration’s policies to address climate change, promising to “drill, baby, drill” and make the U.S. energy independent by increasing production of fossil fuels. In fact, the production of oil and gas hit an all-time high during the Biden administration and the U.S. exports those products, but so long as the U.S is tied to fossil fuels, it will likely always import them because the oil it exports is a different kind than it uses. 

It is not clear that even MAGA Republicans want to kill the green energy initiatives in the Inflation Reduction Act that have brought new factories and good jobs to more Republican-dominated states than Democratic-dominated states.

Today, chair and chief executive officer of ExxonMobil Darren Woods asked the incoming administration not to change Biden’s climate policy dramatically, saying that the lack of consistency on climate change is bad for the economy. “I don’t think the challenge or the need to address global emissions is going to go away,” he said. “Anything that happens in the short term would just make the longer term that much more challenging.”

Exxon has invested heavily in the carbon capture industry. In 2023, Woods predicted that the company’s low-carbon business could generate more money than its traditional oil and gas products in as little as a decade, telling investors he expects carbon capture to be a multitrillion-dollar business.

Trump and his team, apparently led by Elon Musk, have begun to float names for different administration posts, all of whom appear to be picked to replace nonpartisan federal experts with right-wing culture warriors.

For secretary of homeland security, Trump has proposed loyalist Kristi Noem, currently governor of South Dakota. Noem had been under consideration for vice president, but fell out of the running after boasting that she had shot her dog for misbehaving. Earlier this year, Noem appeared to suggest that Texas, which became a state in 1845, was one of the original signatories to the Constitution. She has been a Trump loyalist focusing on the border.

For U.S. ambassador to Israel, Trump has picked former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, an evangelical Christian who denies Palestinian rights to the West Bank, instead supporting Israeli settlements in that land and saying that “Israel has title deed” there, calling the area by the biblical name “Judea and Samaria.”  

For secretary of defense, Trump has tapped Fox News Channel host Pete Hegseth, a combat veteran and host of the weekend edition of Fox & Friends, a show Trump reportedly enjoys. As national security expert Tom Nichols points out, the Secretary of Defense has access to the nuclear command-and-control procedure. The secretary oversees about 1.3 million active-duty troops and another 1.4 million in the National Guard and employed in Reserves and civilian positions, as well as a budget of more than $800 billion.

Hegseth lobbied Trump to intervene in the cases of service members accused of war crimes, and he cheered on Trump’s January 6, 2021, rally. He became popularly known after accidentally hitting a man with an ax on the Fox & Friends show in 2015. Then, in 2019, he regained notoriety when he volunteered that he had not washed his hands in ten years because he does not believe germs are real. Hegseth has said women do not belong in combat and has been vocal about his opposition to the equity and inclusion measures in the military that he calls “woke.”

Lolita C. Baldor and Tara Copp of the Associated Press reported that the news that Trump has tapped the inexperienced Hegseth to run the world’s largest and most powerful military “stunned the Pentagon and the broader defense world.” While some Republicans say they look forward to getting to know him better, others appear to share the Pentagon’s concerns. 

But the news that Trump wants a Fox News Channel host in one of the most important positions in the United States government got overtaken quickly by Trump’s announcement that “the Great Elon Musk, working in conjunction with American Patriot Vivek Ramaswamy,” an entrepreneur who challenged Trump for the presidential nomination, will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency” under his administration. Their advice will, Trump announced, “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” 

Their project is nicknamed “DOGE,” an apparent reference to Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency and meme coin, known as “Dogecoin.” That cryptocurrency surged after the announcement of the new DOGE under Trump, adding to the gains of 153% since Election Day. 

By law, a president does not have the power to create a new department or agency, and participating in one would require Musk and Ramaswamy to get rid of their conflicts of interest.

Trump’s announcement said that Musk and Ramaswamy would “work together to liberate our Economy, and make the U.S. Government accountable to ‘WE THE PEOPLE.’ Their work will conclude no later than July 4, 2026—a smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. I am confident they will succeed!” 

Trump appears to see himself as the founder of a new United States of America while, ironically, the real winners of the chaos he is ushering into the government will be Russia, China, and the other autocratic states eager to dismantle American democracy.

Trump’s demonstration of his plans just before Senate Republicans have to choose their leader seems an attempt to jam those who might stand against him into his camp. And yet, the Framers of the Constitution believed that the Senate would be the key guardrail to stop the rise of an autocrat who would destroy democracy and install himself as a king. They expected that the determination of senators to guard their own power would protect the nation. 

Almost two hundred and fifty years into their experiment, we’re about to find out if they were right.  

—

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Behold! :: David Rowe

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

November 12, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

The backdrop for today’s news is that Republicans in the Senate will vote by secret ballot tomorrow for a new Senate majority leader. That person will control the Senate calendar, deciding what measures will be taken up by the Senate for consideration and thus wielding power over Trump’s legislative plans. 

Trump and his sidekick Elon Musk, along with MAGA leaders and influencers, are backing Florida senator Rick Scott, who has signaled a willingness to do whatever Trump wants. Senators John Thune (R-SD) and John Cornyn (R-TX) are also staunch party members but are not as closely associated with the MAGA faction of the party.

MAGA control of the Senate is at stake, and Trump and his team are pushing their extremist agenda so aggressively it will be impossible for Senate Republicans to pretend they didn’t know what was at stake if they vote to empower the MAGAs. 

Today the Trump transition team floated the idea that Trump could sign an executive order creating a board of retired senior military personnel that would review high-ranking officers and recommend removing any they deemed unfit for leadership. Vivian Salama, Nancy A. Youssef, and Lara Seligman reported in the Wall Street Journal that such a board would enable Trump to purge the military of the generals whom he considers insufficiently loyal to him. Generals who refused to carry out what they considered unconstitutional orders—including using the military against U.S. civilians—infuriated Trump during his first term.

The chairman of VoteVets, retired major general Paul Eaton, warned that such a plan would turn the U.S. military into Trump loyalists. Eaton also warned military personnel what that would mean for the troops, suggesting that folks should “take a look at Stalin’s officer purges in early WWII that resulted in the Soviet, now-Russian Army, enduring incompetence and the use of its rank-and-file troops as cannon meat. The American military is the envy of the world’s militaries, given its efficiency for military effect and stunningly low casualty count. Probably a good model to keep.”

Transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said, “[T]he American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail. He will deliver.” But Trump’s claims of a mandate are wrong. As vote counts continue to come in, it appears that Trump’s margin of victory was actually quite slim. 

Trump has also vowed to eliminate the Biden administration’s policies to address climate change, promising to “drill, baby, drill” and make the U.S. energy independent by increasing production of fossil fuels. In fact, the production of oil and gas hit an all-time high during the Biden administration and the U.S. exports those products, but so long as the U.S is tied to fossil fuels, it will likely always import them because the oil it exports is a different kind than it uses. 

It is not clear that even MAGA Republicans want to kill the green energy initiatives in the Inflation Reduction Act that have brought new factories and good jobs to more Republican-dominated states than Democratic-dominated states.

Today, chair and chief executive officer of ExxonMobil Darren Woods asked the incoming administration not to change Biden’s climate policy dramatically, saying that the lack of consistency on climate change is bad for the economy. “I don’t think the challenge or the need to address global emissions is going to go away,” he said. “Anything that happens in the short term would just make the longer term that much more challenging.”

Exxon has invested heavily in the carbon capture industry. In 2023, Woods predicted that the company’s low-carbon business could generate more money than its traditional oil and gas products in as little as a decade, telling investors he expects carbon capture to be a multitrillion-dollar business.

Trump and his team, apparently led by Elon Musk, have begun to float names for different administration posts, all of whom appear to be picked to replace nonpartisan federal experts with right-wing culture warriors.

For secretary of homeland security, Trump has proposed loyalist Kristi Noem, currently governor of South Dakota. Noem had been under consideration for vice president, but fell out of the running after boasting that she had shot her dog for misbehaving. Earlier this year, Noem appeared to suggest that Texas, which became a state in 1845, was one of the original signatories to the Constitution. She has been a Trump loyalist focusing on the border.

For U.S. ambassador to Israel, Trump has picked former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, an evangelical Christian who denies Palestinian rights to the West Bank, instead supporting Israeli settlements in that land and saying that “Israel has title deed” there, calling the area by the biblical name “Judea and Samaria.”  

For secretary of defense, Trump has tapped Fox News Channel host Pete Hegseth, a combat veteran and host of the weekend edition of Fox & Friends, a show Trump reportedly enjoys. As national security expert Tom Nichols points out, the Secretary of Defense has access to the nuclear command-and-control procedure. The secretary oversees about 1.3 million active-duty troops and another 1.4 million in the National Guard and employed in Reserves and civilian positions, as well as a budget of more than $800 billion.

Hegseth lobbied Trump to intervene in the cases of service members accused of war crimes, and he cheered on Trump’s January 6, 2021, rally. He became popularly known after accidentally hitting a man with an ax on the Fox & Friends show in 2015. Then, in 2019, he regained notoriety when he volunteered that he had not washed his hands in ten years because he does not believe germs are real. Hegseth has said women do not belong in combat and has been vocal about his opposition to the equity and inclusion measures in the military that he calls “woke.”

Lolita C. Baldor and Tara Copp of the Associated Press reported that the news that Trump has tapped the inexperienced Hegseth to run the world’s largest and most powerful military “stunned the Pentagon and the broader defense world.” While some Republicans say they look forward to getting to know him better, others appear to share the Pentagon’s concerns. 

But the news that Trump wants a Fox News Channel host in one of the most important positions in the United States government got overtaken quickly by Trump’s announcement that “the Great Elon Musk, working in conjunction with American Patriot Vivek Ramaswamy,” an entrepreneur who challenged Trump for the presidential nomination, will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency” under his administration. Their advice will, Trump announced, “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” 

Their project is nicknamed “DOGE,” an apparent reference to Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency and meme coin, known as “Dogecoin.” That cryptocurrency surged after the announcement of the new DOGE under Trump, adding to the gains of 153% since Election Day. 

By law, a president does not have the power to create a new department or agency, and participating in one would require Musk and Ramaswamy to get rid of their conflicts of interest.

Trump’s announcement said that Musk and Ramaswamy would “work together to liberate our Economy, and make the U.S. Government accountable to ‘WE THE PEOPLE.’ Their work will conclude no later than July 4, 2026—a smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. I am confident they will succeed!” 

Trump appears to see himself as the founder of a new United States of America while, ironically, the real winners of the chaos he is ushering into the government will be Russia, China, and the other autocratic states eager to dismantle American democracy.

Trump’s demonstration of his plans just before Senate Republicans have to choose their leader seems an attempt to jam those who might stand against him into his camp. And yet, the Framers of the Constitution believed that the Senate would be the key guardrail to stop the rise of an autocrat who would destroy democracy and install himself as a king. They expected that the determination of senators to guard their own power would protect the nation. 

Almost two hundred and fifty years into their experiment, we’re about to find out if they were right.  

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[charyou-tree]

This is a BIG DEAL.

Cement production is one of the biggest sources of CO2 emissions that doesn't directly involve burning fossil fuels. Sure, making cement uses a lot of energy, but theoretically that energy could come from renewable sources that don't emit CO2. Even if it did though, the process of making cement basically involves baking limestone until CO2 and water are driven out of it, creating a substance called "clinker" that is ground down into cement powder. So, making new cement from limestone always emits a lot of CO2, no matter what energy source you use.

This research basically showed that you can use old crushed up concrete waste in place of the flux that is usually used in smelting/recycling steel. Flux creates a glassy slag on top of the molten steel that captures impurities and protects the metal from oxygen while its molten hot. Using concrete as flux basically re-bakes the concrete back into clinker, which can then be used to create more cement and new concrete, while not producing any new CO2 emissions because you're basically baking the CO2 that reacted with the cement to make concrete back out of it. Its like how burning wood doesn't increase the total amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, because the carbon in the tree originally came from the air. Its only digging fossilized carbon out of the ground and adding it into the air that's the problem.

This is a huge step towards decarbonizing our building materials, and it doesn't involve any fancy new technologies, or speculative processes. This could be done today in steel mills that currently exist, they'd just have to switch flux sources and start saving the slag.

What a brilliant piece of industrial research!

[wumblr]

Hi, I'm new here. Sorry if you've already answered this question; I'm new here. I saw your post about the Biden-Harris nuclear plan. I've long-since been loosely optimistic about nuclear as a petrol alternative, but knew that more reactors in the imperial world intrinsically means more bombs as well. Reading through articles here is starting to confirm some suspicions. Have you talked already about serviceable energy alternatives, or is the solution basically to just dismantle capitalism, or?

the IEEFA PDF on the most recent (third) reblog is pretty clear that renewables (wind, solar, and batteries) are the viable/cost effective mid-term strategy. these are not without their own problems (land use, resource consumption, and again batteries) but they are a better option than nuclear. it also points out that full-scale nuclear is more cost efficient than SMRs which i can't dispute, and i wouldn't theoretically have a problem with it if it weren't for the capitalism. you don't gain anything by scaling them down, and IEEFA makes the excellent point that privatized off-grid SMRs do not maintain a consistent baseload supply in the way that full-size on-grid reactors do

waste handling is a sticky problem but it's exacerbated by profiteering and corruption (unfortunately not magically solved by a revolution, either). more reactors only inevitably means more bombs in a war empire, but eliminating capitalism doesn't magically resolve all geopolitical strictures nor does it necessarily equate to eliminating war. i think it would be foolish to build them now and kick the can down the road about seizing power from capital ("you're handing the climate change machine a new 50 year megawatt generator," i keep saying). my main axe to grind is that nobody is taking any of it seriously. that's rude to somebody's kids and i'm still mad it's been done to us. if you want new reactors, know the deal with the devil you're signing, so that you will know when they slack off on their end of the bargain and start doing ohio nuclear bribery incidents and progressively abdicating decommissioning responsibilities for san onofre by reselling it over and over. saying this has made a shocking number of people very angry at me, i assume because their worldview rests on the existence of a magical solution. well, there isn't one. sorry

i'm a degrowth communist. i don't want new reactors. so, i think we should start asking where we can reclaim parts of the energy budget from industry instead of building out more capacity, but, lol. not so long as the democratic party exists, i'm afraid. they sure have been "ironclad" about that! there may be capability to persuade the political establishment toward degrowth but i'm not optimistic, since they love parading around a 0.01% solution for a 100% problem (like carbon capture). because it allows the illusion to continue

(you would think the most energy intensive sector of industry would be computing, for the amount of time we spend talking about energy consumption for crypto, ai, and datacenters, right? well, it's chemicals. i just found that out while fact checking the post. paper also still consumes more than computing, apparently. (third of the top three is "oil/coal products" which is a bit nebulous and i would have to dig into the report the EIA is referencing, MECS 2018, to figure out what's going on there. surely some of that is going back into energy production, right? so, energy production is one of the largest energy consumers? i guess that tracks, but i haven't dug. i assume it also refers to other products.) i think this was in the post but i also love to say "It's Lawrence Livermore National Library Energy Flow Sankey Diagram Sunday!" and point out that 67% of energy in the US is lost to waste heat, labeled rejected energy in the diagram. obviously that runs up against laws of thermodynamics but surely we could be doing better than that)

that was all about energy. you asked about bombs. unfortunately i have to tell you we are likely not going to live to see disarmament. maybe if we stop building reactors, disarmament will become inevitable, at best, in a hundred years. maybe if we seize power from capital it could be administrated more quickly. but, for the foreseeable future, mutually assured destruction is the only thing preventing them from being detonated. thank god for the rosenbergs

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Canary Media:

Airlines are banking on sustainable aviation fuel to reduce the industry’s planet-warming pollution. But the amount of lower-carbon alternatives available to them right now represents just a few drops in an ocean of petroleum.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a nearly $3 billion effort that it said could significantly boost America’s output of sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, over the next few years, Canary Media has exclusively learned.

The agency’s Loan Programs Office has made conditional commitments to two companies in the Great Plains region that are working to turn crops and waste feedstocks into jet fuel.

Montana Renewables, a subsidiary of the industrial manufacturer Calumet, could receive a loan guarantee of up to $1.44 billion to expand its existing renewable fuels facility in Great Falls, Montana. The company makes biofuels for planes and trucks using vegetable oils and leftover animal fats and greases. The expansion would allow Montana Renewables to produce about 315 million gallons per year of biofuels, most of which will be SAF — equal to nearly eight times the country’s total SAF production capacity in 2023.

Colorado-based Gevo is vying for a loan guarantee of $1.46 billion to build a new jet-fuel refinery in Lake Preston, South Dakota. The facility, named Net-Zero 1, would turn corn into ethanol to produce up to 60 million gallons of SAF per year. Because the ethanol-making process creates carbon dioxide emissions, Gevo is planning to capture CO2 at the refinery and send it via the proposed — and highly contentious — Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline to a storage site in North Dakota.

Patrick Gruber, CEO of Gevo, said the announcement ​“marks a watershed moment for the Net-Zero 1 project and a critical step forward” in the company’s mission to produce low-carbon jet fuel. 

The projects are the first SAF-related ventures to win the backing of the Loan Programs Office, which has issued $42.4 billion in loans and loan guarantees and made $21.6 billion in conditional commitments as of June 2024. The office is supporting other clean energy initiatives such as battery manufacturing, virtual power plants, fuel cell production, and the repowering of old nuclear plants.

The two fuel producers will have to meet certain milestones before they can close on the federal loan guarantees and start putting the financing to work.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

For Lula to be a climate leader, he must phase out oil

At COP28, the Brazilian president has sent mixed messages by aligning with OPEC. If he really wants to tackle the growing threat of droughts and floods, he must set a clear fossil-free, pro-nature direction for the UN climate summit he will host in Belém in 2025

The biggest-ever UN climate summit is well underway in Dubai with eighty thousand participants discussing hundreds of agenda items to avert the climate crisis, but ultimately there is only one goal that matters: reducing carbon emissions as quickly as possible by phasing out fossil fuels and eradicating deforestation.

By comparison, everything else is hot air. Delegates can talk all they want about green technology, net zero pledges, compensation payments, scientific studies and other well-intentioned initiatives, but none of that will be effective unless the world halts the build up of carbon dioxide and other planet-heating gases in the atmosphere. That existential challenge, upon which all life on Earth depends, can only be achieved by phasing out coal, oil and gas and restoring the health of the world’s climate infrastructure: the forests, oceans, wetlands and other centres of natural vitality.

If anyone was still in any doubt about the urgency of the climate crisis, this horrendously destructive year has surely made them realise we cannot wait a second longer: 2023 is already confirmed as  the hottest year on record. July was the warmest month in more than 120,000 years. This has brought devastating drought to the Amazon, floods to southern Brazil, heatwaves to the Andean mountains, fires to Canada and death and destruction across many parts of the planet. This is just the start. If emissions from fossil fuels and forests continue to increase, then temperatures will continue to rise for decades. We will look back on 2023 as one of the coolest years of our lives. Soon, it won’t just be dolphins and fish that suffer mass mortalities, it will be people. “We are terrified,” a group of 1,447 scientists said in an open letter released at Cop28. “If we are to create a liveable future, climate action must move from being something that others do to something that we all do.”

The first week of Cop28 shows the desperate need for a new perspective. The process has been captured by the very people who profit most from increasing carbon emissions. The president of this climate conference is Sultan Al Jaber, who is the CEO of the biggest oil and gas company in the United Arab Emirates. As many climate campaigners have joked, this is like putting a fox in charge of a henhouse or asking Dracula to run a bloodbank. But it is not funny when the man in charge of addressing the most difficult and important challenge in human history goes on record to deny that eradicating fossil fuels is the only way to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius or that a life without oil would send humanity back into caves. These comments, which have been thoroughly rebutted by scientists, reveal the true face of the fossil fuel industry, which has been holding up progress for more than three decades.

All of which makes Brazil’s decision to align itself more closely with the world’s biggest oil cartel Opec, more disappointing. Announced at the start of the climate summit, the timing of this move could not have been more of a kick in the teeth to international efforts to tackle global heating. It is brutally pragmatic. Brazil aims to expand oil production in defiance of advice from the International Energy Agency that 1.5C is impossible if countries open new fields. The day after Cop28 finishes, Brazil will hold an auction of dozens of new oil development blocs. All of these steps will mean more drought, more suffering, more death in the years to come.

Continue reading.

[tanadrin]

can't climate change easily be solved with infrastructure projects like sea walls that the dutch have

with sea walls? uh. i don't think there's enough concrete to build a sea wall across every coastline on earth. and lots of places it wouldn't matter--if you're building on porous limestone, it will just seep up through that. and then you get other effects--you will note that concrete sea walls do not occur in nature, and you're going to massively alter erosion patterns and increase your vulnerability to tsunamis.

sea level rise is only one part of the concern around climate change anyway. increased desertification, rendering currently densely populated regions far less habitable, droughts and flooding resulting from shifting weather patterns, destruction of property due to wildfires, and negative impacts on food production are all going to occur to some extent or another.

if the amount of carbon in the atmosphere gets really high, the severity of these effects will not scale in a simple proportional manner to the amount of warming. carbon sinks like the amazon may cease to function, ocean currents may be altered, ocean acidification may alter marine habitats so much that specific industries like fishing are severely affected.

at a certain point it will make economic sense to bite the bullet and engage in geoengineering projects like injecting aerosols into the upper atmosphere--these projects may have negative environmental effects (like acid rain in the case of sulfur aerosols), but they will be less than the climate continuing to heat up. unfortunately these would be stopgap measures only: problems like ocean acidification aren't going to be affected at all. if co2 levels get too high human brain function starts to be affected.

there really is no long term solution for the problems caused by co2 emissions other than there being less co2 in the atmosphere. because carbon capture technology is still not very sophisticated, this means our best bet, by far, is to just not emit that co2 in the first place. personally i think good ol' nuclear power shows promise--modern technology can make it pretty darn clean and safe! even if we ultimately want to switch to other energy sources, fission is a good transitional option while we flesh out those technologies. continuing to burn coal (the stopgap a lot of anti-nuclear types seem to prefer) is not.

[jerdazenglobal]

How to Choose an Air Purifier for Your Yoga Room?

A yoga room definitely needs an air purifier. But how to choose one can be difficult for consumers. Today, I will teach you how to select the right one, including several factors to consider: CADR value, filter types, noise level, and more. Finally, I will recommend several highly rated air purifier models on the market.

First Factor: CADR Value (Clean Air Delivery Rate)

CADR value is an important indicator of an air purifier’s performance, representing how much clean air it can deliver in a given time. This is basically the most important metric for selection. Choosing an air purifier with a higher CADR value will purify the air more quickly and effectively. Generally, the higher the CADR value, the higher the purification efficiency. Home yoga rooms are generally around 20㎡.

Next, Filter Types

The type of filter directly affects the air purification effect. Air purifiers generally have three layers of filters with the following functions:

Pre-filter: Captures larger particles to protect other filters.

HEPA filter: Removes airborne particles such as dust, pollen, and pet dander.

Activated carbon filter: Absorbs harmful gases and odors in the air, such as formaldehyde and benzene.

If you don’t understand all this, it’s okay; just make sure the filter includes these three layers.

Next, Noise Level

Yoga practice definitely requires a quiet environment, so the noise level of an air purifier is also a factor to consider. It is recommended to choose models with low operating noise to ensure you are not disturbed during yoga practice. A good environment can make your practice more effective.

For Households, Energy Consumption

An energy-efficient air purifier not only helps the environment but also reduces electricity costs. When purchasing, check the energy efficiency rating of the air purifier and choose a high-efficiency product; otherwise, it can be very costly.

Is it Smart?

Modern air purifiers often come with smart features such as air quality detection, automatic speed adjustment, and remote control. These features enhance user convenience, allowing you to focus on your yoga practice without worrying about air quality.

Recommended Air Purifiers for Yoga Rooms

When choosing an air purifier, it’s not just about performance; brand is also important. Women should choose based on their own needs. Parameters are not as important as personal preference. Here are some common air purifiers on the market, each with its characteristics, but we will also recommend our JZ200.

Dyson Pure Cool TP04: Although equipped with HEPA and activated carbon filters, it is somewhat noisy, especially at higher speeds, which can disrupt the peaceful environment of yoga practice.

Xiaomi Air Purifier Pro: Cost-effective, but its filters are not easy to replace.

Philips AC2889: Features multiple filters and intelligent air quality detection, but suitable for smaller areas.

IQAir HealthPro Plus: High-efficiency HEPA filter suitable for larger spaces, but it is more expensive, which can be a financial burden for ordinary home yoga practitioners.

Our Product: JZ200

We strongly recommend our product JZ200, which combines the strengths of other brands and is a balanced air purifier for yoga rooms. Here is a brief description of its selling points and functions:

Three-layer filter: Customizable replacement to meet different air purification needs.

Automatic mode: Adjusts airflow based on air quality to ensure optimal air quality.

Sleep mode: Low noise operation at night ensures a quiet environment for yoga practice.

Timer and child lock: Enhances safety and convenience.

Filter replacement indicator and air quality sensor: Monitors air quality in real-time and reminds you to replace filters promptly.

High CADR value: CADR reaches 200m³/h, suitable for rooms up to Sq.Foot.

Low noise: Operates between 23 and 53dB with four-speed settings for various needs.

Jerdazen aims to create a good training environment for yoga enthusiasts. Therefore, the JZ200 is positioned as a yoga air purifier. We hope to get real feedback from users to help us better iterate the product and assist your yoga activities!

For more: https://www.jerdazen.com/blogs/dynamics/air-purifier-for-yoga-room

[aquitainequeen]

Cambridge University researchers have demonstrated how carbon dioxide can be captured from industrial processes – or even directly from the air – and transformed into clean, sustainable fuels using just the energy from the sun. They developed a solar-powered reactor that uses captured CO2 and plastic waste (which acts as a catalyst) and converts it into sustainable fuels and other valuable chemical products. Over several years of testing, CO2 was converted into syngas, a key building block for sustainable liquid fuels, and plastic bottles were converted into glycolic acid, which is widely used in the cosmetics industry. Unlike earlier tests of their solar fuels technology, however, the team took CO2 from real-world sources—such as industrial exhaust or the air itself. They were able to capture and concentrate the CO2 and convert it into sustainable fuel. The researchers appreciate the advances in carbon capture and storage, where CO2 is captured and then pumped and stored underground. But instead, they believe the smart move is ‘carbon capture and utilization’—making something useful from CO2 instead of burying it underground. Something like photosynthesis—the inspiration behind the work done by Professor Erwin Reisner and his team in the Department of Chemistry and at the Cambridge Circular Plastics Centre where they develop net-zero carbon fuels.

Read more!

[cthulhucultrevivalunit]

Eco illusions in the Free Market

Eco illusions in the Free Market by Batzrov

Green capitalism… oxymoron or salvation? Profit from planetary rescue… commodifying survival…

Carbon credits… paying to pollute… algebra of destruction… but does Earth's ledger balance? Nature's debt collector… coming due…

Sustainable products… green-washed consumerism… buy your way to eco-heaven. Heaven for sale…

Renewable energy… solar panels and wind farms… clean power or new scars? Lithium mines… cobalt children…

Capitalism… eating its own tail…

Eco-friendly brands… conscience for sale… but can morality have a price tag? “Ethical consumption” in an unethical system?

Green bonds… financing the future… but whose future? Nature as collateral… but who forecloses on extinction?

Invisible hand turning green? Or just painting itself that way?

Biodegradable packaging… dissolving guilt… but where does it all go? Out of sight… out of mind…

Carbon capture… technological fix… but can we bottle catastrophe?

Eden with a barcode…

Electric vehicles… zero emissions… but batteries built on exploitation… clean streets, dirty mines…

Sustainable fashion… clothing ourselves in righteousness?

Eco-tourism… experience nature before its gone… loving it to death… Footprints in fragile places…

Market forces vs. forces of nature…

if you like my work and would want to see me continue in my own direction, consider supporting me.

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Medium

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[quotesfrommyreading]

Waste recycling is a crucial attribute of the earth's most diverse ecosystems. We value tropical rain forests because they squander so little of the energy supplied by the sun, thanks to their vast, interlocked system of organisms exploiting every tiny niche of the nutrient cycle. The cherished diversity of the rain-forest ecosystem is not just a quaint case of biological multiculturalism. The diversity of the system is precisely why rain forests do such a brilliant job of capturing the energy that flows through them: one organism captures a certain amount of energy, but in processing that energy, it generates waste. In an efficient system, that waste becomes a new source of energy for another creature in the chain. (That efficiency is one of the reasons why clearing the rain forests is such a shortsighted move: the nutrient cycles in their ecosystems are so tigh that the soil is usually very poor for farming: all the available energy has been captured on its way down to the forest floor.)

Coral reefs display a comparable knack for waste management. Corals live in a symbiotic alliance with a tiny algae called zooxanthellae. Thanks to photosynthesis, the algae capture sunlight and use it to turn carbon dioxide into organic carbon, with oxygen as a waste product of the process. The coral then uses the oxygen in its own metabolic cycle. Because we're aerobic creatures ourselves, we tend not to think of oxygen as a waste product, but from the point of view of the algae, that's precisely what it is: a useless substance discharged as part of its metabolic cycle. The coral itself produces waste in the form of carbon dioxide, nitrates, and phosphates, all of which help the algae to grow. That tight waste-recycling chain is one of the primary reasons coral reefs are able to support such a dense and diverse population of creatures, despite residing in tropical waters, which are generally nutrient-poor. They are the cities of the sea.

 —  The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World (Steven Johnson)

[iconicofficeblog]

Creative Concepts: Designing Office Carpets for Success in Dubai

The Future of Office Flooring: Innovations and Sustainability in Dubai

In Dubai, the future of office flooring is taking a leap into the realm of innovation and sustainability, especially in the context of office carpet in Dubai. From smart flooring technology to eco-friendly materials and modular designs, the landscape of office floors is evolving to meet the demands of modern workplaces. Let's dive into these exciting trends and explore how they can revolutionize office spaces while aligning with Dubai's sustainability goals.

Smart Flooring Technology: Enhancing Efficiency and Comfort

Imagine walking into an office where the floor adapts to your needs - that's the promise of smart flooring technology. These futuristic floors are equipped with sensors and actuators that adjust lighting, temperature, and even acoustic properties based on occupancy and usage patterns. In Dubai's dynamic business environment, smart flooring can enhance energy efficiency, create personalized work environments, and contribute to a more comfortable workspace for employees.

Sustainable Materials: A Greener Approach to Office Design

Dubai is embracing sustainable practices, and office flooring is no exception. Companies are turning to eco-friendly materials such as recycled carpets, bamboo flooring, and reclaimed wood to reduce environmental impact. These sustainable options not only support Dubai's sustainability goals but also contribute to healthier indoor air quality and a more eco-conscious workplace culture.

Modular Designs: Flexibility and Adaptability

Flexibility is key in modern office design, and modular flooring offers the perfect solution. With modular designs, offices can easily reconfigure spaces, accommodate technology integration, and adapt to changing business needs. In Dubai, where businesses thrive on innovation and agility, modular flooring provides the flexibility to create dynamic work environments that foster creativity and collaboration.

Energy Efficiency: Reducing Carbon Footprints

Dubai aims to be a global leader in sustainability, and energy-efficient office flooring in Dubai plays a crucial role in achieving this vision. LED-integrated floors, energy-capturing tiles, and passive heating/cooling systems are just some examples of how innovative flooring solutions can contribute to reduced energy consumption and lower carbon footprints in office buildings across the city.

Promoting Well-being: Creating Healthy Workspaces

The link between workspace design and employee well-being is well recognized, and office flooring plays a significant part in creating healthy work environments. In Dubai, companies are prioritizing flooring solutions that promote ergonomic comfort, reduce noise pollution, and enhance air quality. By investing in employee well-being through innovative flooring choices, businesses in Dubai are fostering happier, more productive teams.

Case Studies: Inspiring Examples of Innovation

Let's take a look at some real-world examples of companies in Dubai that are leading the way with cutting-edge flooring solutions:

XYZ Corporation's Smart Flooring Integration XYZ Corporation, a tech-forward company in Dubai, recently implemented smart flooring technology in their new office space. The floors automatically adjust lighting and temperature based on occupancy, leading to significant energy savings and improved employee comfort.

Greentech Industries' Sustainable Flooring Initiative Greentech Industries, a sustainability-focused firm, opted for recycled carpet tiles and bamboo flooring in their Dubai office. This eco-friendly approach not only aligns with their values but also inspires their employees to embrace sustainability in their daily lives.

InnovateX's Modular Flooring System InnovateX, a start-up incubator, chose a modular flooring system for their office in Dubai. This design allows them to easily reconfigure spaces for different projects and accommodate rapid growth without major renovations, showcasing the flexibility of modular flooring solutions.

The future of office flooring in Dubai is bright with innovation and sustainability at its core. From smart technologies that enhance efficiency to sustainable materials that promote eco-consciousness, the possibilities are endless. By adopting these cutting-edge solutions, businesses in Dubai can create inspiring workspaces that prioritize both productivity and planet Earth. Let's step into the future of office flooring together!

[notwiselybuttoowell]

Critics point out that the production of LNG, when drilling, production and burning are considered, is a major driver of the climate crisis. Studies have shown that while gas emits less carbon dioxide than coal, it often also involves the leaking of large quantities of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

“This is a carbon mega bomb,” said Jeremy Symons, a former Environmental Protection Agency official, of CP2, which has requested a permit to operate until 2050, a point when Biden aims for the US to have zeroed out its emissions. “The scale of the project is almost unfathomable and it locks us into a fossil fuel dependency for the next 30 years. If all we do is shift from coal to gas, we are cooked.”

According to calculations by Symons, who runs his own consultancy, the CP2 project would cause 197m tons of planet-heating gases each year once fully operational, including emissions from the production of the gas and its eventual burning overseas, which isn’t counted in the US’s own emissions tally.

This scale of emissions is 20 times greater than the controversial Willow oil project in Alaska, which was approved by the Biden administration despite a huge outcry from Democrats, tribes and climate campaigners earlier this year.

Should several dozen other proposed gas-export facilities along the Gulf of Mexico also be built, then the overall emissions toll would be gargantuan, according to figures Symons shared with the Guardian. If all planned terminals go ahead, it would result in an extra 3.2bn tons of greenhouse gases each year, he found, close to the annual emissions of the entire European Union and severely imperiling hopes of avoiding catastrophic global heating.

“It’s an unbelievable amount of pollution and it would spell game over for a livable planet as we’ve known it,” said Symons. “We would double LNG production just with the gas terminals that have been proposed, meaning we are just shifting emissions overseas even as we act on climate here in the US. We’ve left the back door wide open, and profit-seeking oil-gas companies are taking full advantage.”

The CP2 project is awaiting permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Ferc), which regulates pipelines, as well as the US Department of Energy. Several Democratic lawmakers have criticized Ferc, and the Biden administration, for repeatedly approving huge gas projects despite concerns over damage to the climate as well as to the air and water of nearby communities, already overburdened by a tangle of oil and gas infrastructure along the Gulf coast.

Ferc has been “captured by the fossil fuel industry”, complained the US senator Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, after the agency approved a separate gas plant in the Pacific north-west last week. “Ferc may be an obscure federal agency to most people, but there are important decisions on the horizon at Ferc that will determine whether the world meets its climate goals,” he said. “With projects such as the Calcasieu Pass 2 LNG export terminal on the horizon, right now, the signs aren’t good.”

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

“How hot is it?”

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

JUL 7, 2023

          July 4, 2023, set the record for the warmest global temperature since scientists began tracking that measure forty years ago. Three days later, the “reddest” states are facing the most extreme temperatures in the US during a summer filled with extreme temperatures. Take a moment to review the charts included in The Washington Post, 41 million people in the U.S. may be exposed to dangerous heat today.

          A genre of jokes includes the set-up line, “How hot is it?”, but it is no joke when tens of millions of Americans are exposed to “dangerous” heat. Human-caused climate change is challenging to fight because its effects are often imperceptibly small and occur over long periods. But within the living memory of tens of millions of Americans, the length and severity of heat waves in the southern portion of the US have changed perceptibly—even dramatically. Spring arrives earlier, summers are hotter, and fall arrives later. See, e.g., Climate Change Indicators: Length of Growing Season | US EPA, and Seasonality and Climate Change | US EPA.

          So, what’s wrong with an extended, warmer growing season? Those indicators correlate with drier landscapes, more wildfires, more extreme hurricane seasons, and greater vulnerability to agricultural pests. (If you think the latter is not a grave threat to agriculture and the US economy, speak to a farmer.) Indeed, it is possible that the re-emergence of malaria-bearing mosquitos in Florida is the latest consequence of climate change. See The Guardian, Experts say climate change likely to increase US malaria cases.

          Climate change is the most daunting and complicated challenge we face. Fortunately, it is one of the areas where President Biden has demonstrated unparalleled leadership. His infrastructure bill and Inflation Reduction Act are the most significant investments in renewable energy by any country at any time in history.

          From a political standpoint, the good news is that most Americans agree with most efforts to confront human-caused climate change. A Pew Research survey conducted between May 30 to June 4, 2023, found the following:

74% of Americans say they support the country’s participation in international efforts to reduce the effects of climate change.

67% of U.S. adults prioritize the development of alternative energy sources such as wind, solar and hydrogen power over increasing the production of fossil fuel energy sources.

76% favor providing a tax credit to businesses that develop carbon capture technologies and 70% support taxing corporations based on their carbon emissions.

61% favor requiring power plants to eliminate all carbon emissions by the year 2040.

69% of Americans say they’ve experienced at least one of five types of extreme weather in the past year: Long periods of unusually hot weather (45%), severe weather such as floods or intense storms (44%), droughts or water shortages (33%), major wildfires (18%) and rising sea levels that erode beaches and shorelines (16%).

          The fact that 60% of Americans have experienced extreme weather events in the last year alone suggests that climate change denialism should diminish over time—as it is in the US. (Sadly, the right wing’s growing acceptance of climate change has been re-purposed into grounds for anti-immigration policies. See The Guardian, Climate denial is waning on the right. What’s replacing it might be just as scary.)

          Despite the encouraging findings in the Pew Research survey, most Americans oppose the complete elimination of gasoline for cars and fossil-fuels for the electrical grid. So, we have our work cut out for us. In order to make significant progress, we must overcome public reluctance to eliminating our dependence on fossil fuels for electricity and transportation.

          What can we do? The most direct, effective step we can take is to elect representatives at every level of government who are committed to reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. Climate change cannot be a “background” or “secondary” issue for Democrats. It is a “kitchen table” issue that affects people where they live and work. Just ask red-state citizens who are struggling with dangerous heat this week.

     [Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Anthropocene Magazine:

Nearly ten times as many people in America now work at Starbucks than dig for coal. Coal mining has long been a canary of America’s energy transition—it lost hundreds of thousands of workers in the 20th century, and has shrunk in half again since 2012. 

Losing dirty, dangerous coal jobs is one thing, but the wholesale dismantling of our fossil fuel economy promises to be far more disruptive. True, but there’s a huge caveat. The bright light on the horizon is that most estimates of new clean energy jobs dwarf even the largest oil refineries and auto plants. 

Winners

1. Everyone (on average). 2021 was a big year for energy jobs globally—it was the first time that more people around the world were working in clean energy jobs than fossil fuels, according to the International Energy Authority (IEA). While the US is still lagging behind that curve, clean energy jobs here are growing at twice the rate of the rest of the energy sector, says the Department of Energy (DOE). And the future looks rosy. Researchers at Dartmouth College calculate that a low carbon economy in the US would create two or even three green energy jobs for every fossil fuel job lost. (That fits with an earlier study out of Berkeley, which found that renewable and sustainable power sources inherently require more people per gigawatt hour of electricity generated, compared to fossil fuel plants).

2. Solar installers and battery makers. Photovoltaic and energy storage companies have been on a tear, adding tens of thousands of workers last year in the US. When considered along with wind, EVs, heat pumps and critical minerals supply, solar power and batteries accounted for over half of all job growth in global energy production since 2019. And the IEA expects these sectors to add tens of millions more jobs by the end of the decade.

3. Some surprise hires. Don’t count out Big Oil and Big Auto just yet. Both the IEA and the DOE expect the fossil fuel industry (particularly natural gas) to hire more workers in the immediate future, albeit at slower rates than clean energy jobs and tailing off in years to come. The IEA notes that if fossil fuel companies could successfully transition to hydrogen, carbon capture, geothermal and biofuels processing, they could almost offset decreases in core oil and gas employment all the way to 2030. It also expects car makers to pivot to EV production, retraining workers and safeguarding many jobs.

Losers

1. Oil workers. Changing careers means more than just a quick retraining session. Morgan Frank at the University of Pittsburgh went down the rabbit hole of what transferring US fossil fuel employment to green jobs would actually mean, and the answer isn’t pretty. His team’s paper in Nature found that green energy jobs are not co-located with today’s oil and gas workers, leading them to predict that almost 99% of extraction workers would not transition to green jobs. And any workers that do make the change face a financial hit. The IEA notes that workers moving from oil and gas to wind, solar and hydrogen today would see pay cuts of 15 to 30%.

2. Petro-states. The shift to green energy will be difficult for economies that rely heavily on fossil fuel extraction and processing. Consultancy EY has an illuminating, interactive webpage allowing you to compare employment in regions around the world, under different decarbonization scenarios. Spoiler alert—oil producing nations in the Middle East and Australia are likely to see employment slump, and even Africa could experience a destabilizing wobble unless it accelerates production of green hydrogen and EV battery materials. “Due to the transition, socio-economic sustainability risks will likely increase as the employment rate drops,” warns author Catherine Friday.

3. Homer Simpson. Some low-carbon energy sectors aren’t exactly booming. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) expects the employment of nuclear technicians to decline 6% from 2023 to 2033. The US hit peak nuclear power stations in 2012 and has been declining ever since, as facilities age into decommissioning without being replaced. Meanwhile, a planned new generation of safer, cheaper and more efficient fission reactors continues to suffer cost overruns, red tape and delays, and commercial nuclear fusion remains a decades-distant dream. D’oh!

What To Keep An Eye On

1. Labor shortages. Workers skilled in green energy jobs won’t just appear from nowhere. Projects are already facing delays in the EU and the US from labor shortages. Biden’s omnibus Inflation Reduction Act included incentives for partnering with apprentice programs and other funding that could be used to train maintenance workers, and installers for clean energy projects. But millions of workers will be needed, and in short order.

2. Carbon capture. The IPCC estimates that between 350 and 1200 gigatons of CO2 will need to be captured and stored this century. No one really knows yet what the technologies needed to achieve that will look like, but they will likely involve a lot of new workers. Climate research firm Rhodium Group estimated that each gigaton captured could translate to 1.5 million construction and 500,000 operation jobs.

3. Chat (and other) bots for hire. Any predictions about the future workplace should be taken with a large pinch of AI and robotics. The BLS just issued a report that shows dozens of occupations employing hundreds of thousands of Americans are likely to shrink in the years ahead. Top of the list are clerks and supervisors, but there are plenty of manufacturing and production roles at risk, too, that could affect the green energy roll-out.