Disqus - Latest Comments for lloydalter

Re: Molten Tin Deployed For Lithium-Free Energy Storage

Lloyd Alter — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 16:22:57 -0000

But it’s “lithium free” like all of the other the heat batteries that have been going around recently. And like them all, it is completely ridiculous to compare storing heat to storing electricity. There is nothing wrong with the concept but the “lithium-free” headline and copy is the worst kind of clickbait.

Re: How to Understand the Scale of Embodied Carbon

Lloyd Alter — Mon, 06 Feb 2023 15:06:03 -0000

I looked but could only find the estimate for flying at 48 tonnes, All the houses might double it. let's call it 100 tonnes. If she has a yacht, it could be 10 times as much https://www.dw.com/en/super...

Re: What to See in the Night Sky for February 2023

Lloyd Alter — Thu, 02 Feb 2023 19:02:15 -0000

I am retired from Treehugger now and those things eat a lot of fuel!

Re: Mazda's Electric Car Gets a Rotary Range Extender

Lloyd Alter — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 17:50:29 -0000

weird that my last post on Treehugger is such a lame one but thanks for all your contributions and for keeping me honest. Much appreciated.

Re: Algae Could Supply Sustainable Protein to a Changing World

Lloyd Alter — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 17:42:00 -0000

Years ago a former treehugger writer complained about why we can't refill wine bottles like they do in France. He went on about the environmental cost of drinking imported Australian wine, exaggerating somewhat: "When did it become okay to destroy the climate and kill 50-90 per cent of living species so we could drink imported wine? How did it become possible for us to think we could have whatever we wanted wherever we wanted it? Do you really want to try to look your children in the eye and explain that they have to eat jellyfish gumbo because you couldn’t resist that lovely imported shiraz?" I have thought that jellyfish gumbo was the worst thing we had to face, but now I have switched that to algae.

Re: New Sublime Process Decarbonizes Cement With Low-Carbon Lime

Lloyd Alter — Tue, 24 Jan 2023 15:24:39 -0000

They are making the cement.

Re: Let's Talk About Induced Distance Instead of Induced Demand

Lloyd Alter — Sun, 22 Jan 2023 15:34:43 -0000

Yup https://www.treehugger.com/...

Re: Let's Talk About Induced Distance Instead of Induced Demand

Lloyd Alter — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 17:47:20 -0000

I love Buffalo, do not get there nearly as often as I would like. I even like snow. If only I could take my Canadian health insurance. (I know, Buffalo has great hospitals)

Re: LED Street Lighting Is Brighter, Bluer, and Increasing Environmental Risk

Lloyd Alter — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 14:15:11 -0000

this was a great reply, just noticed it!

Re: What Really Matters in Multi-Story Design? A New Looks at It All

Lloyd Alter — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 14:11:50 -0000

I am framing this one.

Re: America's Gas Stove Freak-Out Is a Culture War, Not a Scientific Disagreement

Lloyd Alter — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 10:06:08 -0000

Or I just pull out my butane camping stove that I keep here just in case.

Re: Could You Start Having 4-Minute Showers?

Lloyd Alter — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 19:08:53 -0000

I thought the same way, Katherine and I both live beside the biggest fresh water source in the world. what surprised me to learn was the energy required to clean the water and then pump it up into the water towers, it is not inconsiderable. Where I live by Lake Ontario it is the city's second biggest electricity cost after street lighting. I love a hot bath and the other day did the math on my 3.22 cubic meters of water heated up 30 degrees C and with what the city charges me for water and what I used in gas to heat it, the bath cost me three bucks and had quite a footprint. However Katherine also lives down the street from the 6.2 Megawatt Bruce nuclear power plant so her electricity is pretty low carbon.

Re: Was Roman Concrete Especially Durable or Is Modern Concrete Exceptionally Crappy?

Lloyd Alter — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 15:50:10 -0000

survivor bias is an excellent point.

Re: There's No Gas Stove Ban But Regulations Can Reduce Indoor Air Pollution

Lloyd Alter — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 13:00:47 -0000

they have chimneys and vent to exterior.

Re: There's No Gas Stove Ban But Regulations Can Reduce Indoor Air Pollution

Lloyd Alter — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 20:02:10 -0000

Lead paint had great coverage and asbestos was fabulous insulation. people with agency might well decide to keep using them, they worked better than what replaced them. Should we let them make that choice?

Re: Do Smart Thermostats Save Energy? New Research Makes Surprising Findings

Lloyd Alter — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 17:08:04 -0000

that's no good. send me your email and I will forward it to you lalter@dotdashmdp.com

Re: Tobacco Companies to Pay for Cigarette Butt Pollution in Spain

Lloyd Alter — Mon, 09 Jan 2023 15:37:54 -0000

that was my first thought, lots of companies still do.

Re: Calls for Taxing Private Jets of the Superrich Are Getting Louder

Lloyd Alter — Fri, 06 Jan 2023 08:00:32 -0000

yes I suspect you are right, it wouldn't make a bit of difference.

Re: Calls for Taxing Private Jets of the Superrich Are Getting Louder

Lloyd Alter — Thu, 05 Jan 2023 15:03:14 -0000

We have noted this many times, that regular commercial travel puts out way more. but also: "the vast majority of private flying happens in the U.S., and there are few fast alternatives to get from Teterboro to Palm Beach or Nantucket. But those American flights in 2021 totaling 5,526,579 metric tons are the equivalent of 1,201,430 cars on the road."

Re: The 'Ironclad Rule of Carbon' Means We Have to Change How We Think About Design

Lloyd Alter — Sun, 01 Jan 2023 09:44:16 -0000

Ok found some good LCAs and formulas, it is ridiculous how bad the data are but I now calculate a fully loaded F-150 lightning to be 20.244 tonnes based on formulas from the ICCT. taking out the whole car section in the next day or two (corrections need editorial approval)

Re: 2022 in Review: The Year in Upfront Carbon

Lloyd Alter — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 14:46:28 -0000

This is why I go on about sufficiency, we cant just electrify cars, we need fewer cars. I really do believe that in most of the US e-bikes can pick a lot of the slack, along with good urban planning.
R-290 has been approved finally in the US with up to 2 pounds in a charge. This will soon make them available for small units in the states, and you get 10 charges out of a barbecue tank so we don't need that much propane for it.

Re: 2022 in Review: The Year in Upfront Carbon

Lloyd Alter — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 14:40:48 -0000

I have been wrestling with this all week during the break, writing a book about upfront carbon. Read this depressing article by a leading degrowther, Giorgos Kallis, who concludes "It might well be the case that ‘the politically acceptable is ecologically disastrous while the ecologically necessary is politically impossible’" https://royalsocietypublish...

Re: Can Architects Survive in a World Where We Have to Build Less?

Lloyd Alter — Sat, 24 Dec 2022 12:43:50 -0000

That's an amazing building, you have so many of them in Buffalo, and keep losing them!

Re: Treehugger Introduces a Modern Pyramid of Energy Conservation

Lloyd Alter — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 09:38:42 -0000

"Please think before you post treehugger." please read before you insult treehugger. we call for lots of insulation and air sealing before heat pumps and a dramatic reduction in heat loss before installing heat pumps.

Re: The Key to Green Building Is to Use Less Stuff

Lloyd Alter — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 15:42:03 -0000

but we need more steel than we are recovering through recycling. we need to use less of it overall to try and keep within the limits of what we can push through the electric arc furnaces.