The Climate Change Discussion Thread

[JustForTheHalibut]

Unless greenhouse gas emissions drop significantly, warming by 2500 will make the Amazon barren, Iowa tropical and India too hot to live in.

Crazy to think in a few hundred years the midwest could be growing palm oil instead of the wheat and canola that the Plains and Prairies grow now.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...umans-by-2500/





The top painting is based on pre-colonisation Indigenous cities and communities with buildings and a diverse maize-based agriculture. The second is the same area today, with a grain monoculture and large harvesters. The last image, however, shows agricultural adaptation to a hot and humid subtropical climate, with imagined subtropical agroforestry based on oil palms and arid zone succulents. The crops are tended by AI drones, with a reduced human presence. Credit: Lyon et al. 2021 (CC BY-ND)




The top image is a busy agrarian village scene of rice planting, livestock use and social life. The second is a present-day scene showing the mix of traditional rice farming and modern infrastructure present in many areas of the Global South. The bottom image shows a future of heat-adaptive technologies including robotic agriculture and green buildings with minimal human presence due to the need for personal protective equipment. Credit: Lyon et al. 2021 (CC BY-ND)



The top image shows a traditional pre-contact Indigenous village (1500 CE) with access to the river and crops planted in the rainforest. The middle image is a present-day landscape. The bottom image, considers the year 2500 and shows a barren landscape and low water level resulting from vegetation decline, with sparse or degraded infrastructure and minimal human activity. Credit: Lyon et al. 2021 (CC BY-ND)

[Acajack]

Steven Guilbeault finally gets the keys to the (electric) car!

[JHikka]

https://www.utoronto.ca/news/u-t-s-p...nada-s-largest

U of T's proposed geoexchange project on Front Campus is one of urban Canada's largest

With its expansive lawn flanked by heritage buildings like Convocation Hall and University College, Front Campus is the historic centrepiece of the University of Toronto’s St. George campus. Now, the iconic green space is poised to be at the heart of the university’s mission to reduce carbon emissions and meet ambitious climate change commitments.

A new sustainability project proposed under U of T’s Low Carbon Action Plan aims to make Front Campus the site of a geoexchange system. Boreholes would be drilled deep into the ground to allow for storage of surplus heat, generated by mechanical systems in the summer, for use in the cold winter months.

In effect, the system would use the Earth as a thermal battery for the storage of so-called reject heat, which is typically discarded into the atmosphere.

The King's College Circle Geothermal Project is predicted to yield annual greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions of 15,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by the year 2024, which would make it the single biggest contributor to U of T’s annual emission-reduction target of 44,567 tonnes.

[Airboy]

So my first large solar project gets switched on next week.
this is 2500-440W panels. Will have power savings cost of about 25%. This is a large Recreation centre. 3 Ice rinks (one that is about 5000 seating). a leisure rink, fitness centre, pool, rehab clinic, running track, 3 basket ball courts, a restaurant bar and 2 indoor soccer pitches. plus amenities.

[IMG]SERVUS Place Solar 3 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/[/url], on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]SERVUS Place Solar by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/[/url], on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]SERVUS Place Solar 2 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/[/url], on Flickr[/IMG]

[MonctonRad]

Good stuff. Will this recreation centre be energy self sufficient???

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Good stuff. Will this recreation centre be energy self sufficient???

With 3 ice rinks? No.

But it's great to see that roof real estate is not going wasted. Wish more big box stores, warehouses and malls did this.

[WarrenC12]

Looks sweet. Ice rinks and a pool must have massive power bills. Hope it all goes smoothly!

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Good stuff. Will this recreation centre be energy self sufficient???

Nope, as I said there should be about 25% less power from the grid. The Ice Plants and pool equipment are big users. This project is also in the process of changing out all of the lighting to LED. The old CFs were at the end of life.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Airboy

Nope, as I said there should be about 25% less power from the grid. The Ice Plants and pool equipment are big users. This project is also in the process of changing out all of the lighting to LED. The old CFs were at the end of life.

Thanks. Even 25% is nothing to sneeze at.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by Airboy

Nope, as I said there should be about 25% less power from the grid. The Ice Plants and pool equipment are big users.

I have always wondered. For applications like this, would heat exchangers be useful at all? Or are the returns just too small?

[Chadillaccc]

Likely the most important environmental infrastructure project in Canadian history - rivalled only by Winnipeg's Red River Floodway - just got approved and will begin construction within a couple months. It will be operational by the 2024 flood season, and will save the federation's third largest municipality and fourth largest metropolitan area tens of billions in damages over the next century alone.

Thank gods.


Construction on long-awaited Springbank reservoir to protect Calgary area from floods is officially a go

$432M reservoir expected to be operational by 2024





https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...ners-1.6229959

[lio45]

“Third largest municipality”

(If you guys annexed Okotoks already, your lead over Vancouver would be even greater!)

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

I have always wondered. For applications like this, would heat exchangers be useful at all? Or are the returns just too small?

Depends on how they are used. For the ice plants not in this case. However the AHUs will next be needed to be replaced. Switching to HRVs is in the plans.

We are designing a net Zero pool. If we had an arena next door to that one we could use the heat from the Ice plants for pool heating.

We are doing a large scale Sewage heat recovery project now as well. This will tie into a district energy system. Currently only about 100 residents but will have about 10-30,000 over the next 20 years.

[Truenorth00]

Very cool. Thank you.

[Truenorth00]

Canada is committing to capping emissions from the oil and gas sector:

"We'll cap oil and gas sector emissions today and ensure they decrease tomorrow at a pace and scale needed to reach net-zero by 2050," Trudeau said during his two-minute speech in front of other world leaders gathered in Scotland.

"That's no small task for a major oil and gas producing country. It's a big step that's absolutely necessary."

In 2019, Canada's oil and gas sector accounted for 191 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions — 26 per cent of the country's total emissions. The country's second largest source of emissions is the transport sector, which emitted 186 megatonnes.

Since 1990, emissions from the oil and gas sector have nearly doubled — an increase largely attributed to a dramatic expansion of the oilsands industry.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tru...-gas-1.6232639

[Airboy]

Probably why this was anounced today.


$176 MILLION ANNOUNCED TO SUPPORT 16 SHOVEL-READY PROJECTS TO ACCELERATE ALBERTA’S ECONOMIC RECOVERY, CUT GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
https://eralberta.ca/media-releases/...gas-emissions/

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by Airboy

Probably why this was anounced today.


$176 MILLION ANNOUNCED TO SUPPORT 16 SHOVEL-READY PROJECTS TO ACCELERATE ALBERTA’S ECONOMIC RECOVERY, CUT GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
https://eralberta.ca/media-releases/...gas-emissions/

It's a good start. But Alberta wanted something ridiculous like $30B for CCUS.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...ture-1.5941518

[Airboy]

So here is my completed Solar Project. 1.1MW. about 580 tonnes of GHG removed. will power about 16% of the centres needs. but add to this replacing 1800 lights with LED should save about 25% of the power usage. which should be about 257 tonnes of GHGs removed.

[IMG]CoSA SCUP solar by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/t[/url], on Flickr[/IMG]

photos supplied by AltaPro

[O-tacular]

Good work! Nice to see it actually reducing power consumption. There's a retail district near my house with solar panels on the roof but they only use the extra power to light LED displays. Rather than reduce power consumption overall they simply use the renewables to justify MORE power usage. It seems similar to how increased road capacity leads to more traffic.

[rofina]

This is not a gotcha, but a genuine curiosity.

Does an install like that ever pay off in the lifespan of the solar panels?

That is, the 25% reduction in cost from energy consumption, how many decades would it take for that to pay off the supply and install of the system?