Fastest rate of natural carbon dioxide rise over the last 50k years

Re:Fastest rate of natural carbon dioxide rise over the last... by lotsofpulp on Wednesday May 15, 2024 @09:03AM (#40366381)

We are well past being equipped to know the ramifications of using energy to move mass long distances.

Using more space, traveling further distances, and moving more mass is all it comes down to. In order of impact, it means detached homes, individual huge car and air transport, animal food products, and shipping things across oceans (aka things stamped with made in China).

Approximately no one is willing to give up these luxuries on a nation scale.

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Re:Fastest rate of natural carbon dioxide rise over the last... by dgacmu on Wednesday May 15, 2024 @09:55AM (#40366997)

You're placing the blame on the wrong thing - The embodied energy of producing most of the things we consume is much higher than the energy of shipping. Shipping on a massive container ship is really impressively efficient. (Shipping by air is a very different matter, of course)

You can see the same thing if you look at the energy cost of food shipping: perishable goods like asparagus are shipped in refrigerated planes, and the added energy of shipping is huge, whereas bananas are shipped on cargo ships.

https://ourworldindata.org/food-transport-by-mode

For example

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Re:Fastest rate of natural carbon dioxide rise over the last... by lotsofpulp on Wednesday May 15, 2024 @09:59AM (#40367045)

True, I should have replaced shipping with the mass of everything else we consume.

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