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724
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3 yr. ago

  • I'm just pointing out that cheaper energy means people tend to use more. I'm very much for renewable energy and against AI. Just that we also need to find ways to be much more efficient with it. I live in a place with "cheap" renewable energy and we use more per capita than most of the rest of the world. So it's just something to keep in mind. I'm saying it's excellent to have renewable energy, it's excellent to have it as cheap as possible, but it can also lead to waste and pollution in other ways.

    You don't have to make a false dichotomy where it's either one or the other.

    EDIT: Just to give you an example. People know here that our energy is "renewable" and cheap. So when we're asked to reduce usage during peaks, there's a few people yelling at the top of their lungs that we just have to build more dams, flood more land, and that "water will always flow in the turbines anyway".

  • It's a natural phenomenon but AFAIK it can be accentuated or accelerated by the rise of the sea level, or the passage of boats and vessels. It can be entirely normal, but it can also be provoked or worsened by other factors. And that's why we document and do some research about it?!

    I'm not a climate scientist but luckily the Wikipedia's article on the Streisand effect has a link to coastal erosion if you want to know more.

  • It's Barbara Streisand's.

    The term was coined in 2005 by Mike Masnick of Techdirt after Barbra Streisand attempted to suppress the publication of a photograph by Kenneth Adelman showing her clifftop residence in Malibu, taken to document coastal erosion in California.

  • Have you read it? Translated or in French? Because this is a list of facts, with a conclusion addressing what you are pointing out. It's literally from the government of the province.

    Le Québec, avec son climat hivernal rigoureux, connaît des besoins élevés en puissance électrique lors de périodes de grand froid, alors que toute la population doit se chauffer simultanément. Ces épisodes, appelés périodes de pointe de puissance, ne durent que quelques heures par année, mais exercent une pression sur le réseau.

    Translated: The province of Québec, with its cold climate, has high energetic needs during the peaks of extreme cold periods, because the whole population has to heat their homes at the same time. Those periods, called power peaks, are only lasting for a few hours every year, but are putting pressure on the network.

    Also, those places have summer. Most of the population in Québec and Norway don't live in an arctic tundra.

  • If the electricity bill would be lower people would use more energy and switch to electric cars real fast. I'm sure some people would not change their habits, but I'm inclined to think a lot of people would just use more and care a bit less about trying to use it as efficiently as possible.

    Just take cars as an example. Everyone wants low gas prices, but when gas prices are low, people are buying bigger cars that consumes more gas/energy. Another example are places with renewable energy powering the grid, having cheaper electricity, but also ending up using more per person.

    The province of Québec is one of the biggest consumer of electricity per inhabitant in the world, behind Iceland and Norway. Source in French.

    Those places have super high percentages of cheap renewable energy being generated, but they also consume much more per inhabitant. Sure, if we cover the earth in solar panels, reservoirs, tap geothermal, and have enough energy to waste for everybody, and every manufacture. But this takes resources, space, batteries, and ends up polluting too. The less we need, the better it is for everyone.

    I'm not saying we don't need renewable nor deserve lower bills. Just that the actual system of consumption cannot only be reduced to "more cheap renewable energy". I'm in Québec and energy is mostly renewable and relatively cheap here. But we also can't just continue to build giant reservoirs visible from space to quench our insatiable appetite for electricity. We'll have to learn to use less energy too; be more efficient with what we have. Not just convert everything to renewable and call it a day.

  • Fuck cars. I'm car free and glad to be. My bike doesn't spy on me. And I don't really fancy getting an e-bike that requires an app just to work. The only thing spying on me is my Android phone.

  • Me_irl

    Jump
  • And then 30 minutes before your flight you hear an announcement saying it will now depart from the gate at the other side of the airport.

  • Every time the constitution is on the table the country nearly implodes.

    Will all the provinces agree on a new constitution this time? It only led to two referendum the few last times we tried.

  • And gamers will still pay for them, apparently.

  • The Dow is over 50 000!

  • Some people really want technology to be the solution to all our problems. And I'm a tech enthusiast myself. But some things are not worth it.

    Just a few minutes ago I read a comment in a thread about climate change and AI, saying we "just" had to run the datacenters on solar energy.

  • If not buzzed on laudanum, it would have been on coal fumes.

    It's also remarkable that although cast iron radiators are becoming rare, the principle remains the same today and some still heat their homes with steam or hot water. That baby could be retrofitted on a modern system if someone really wanted to.

  • The pandemic really killed off any hope I had that we would do anything against climate change. The environment got better for a few days and weeks while we were all working from home, and everyone around me was like "I can't wait to go back to my commute". People were eager to go back to the way they were. Pollution, inequalities, and all.

    If a pandemic didn't budge us from overconsumption and the hyper capitalism that is slowly condemning humanity, nothing will. The threat was immediate and we didn't change the system.

    What's also telling is that every election in my country or province, the most important issue is always the economy. That and the price of gas. You know, less environmental taxes and more money in the pockets of ordinary people so they can consume more. And pay for gas.

    So with a threat that is "far" in the future, and immediate preoccupations like constant economic growth and low gas prices, the outlook is grim.

  • I wasn't paying much attention to the race but I just checked and apparently it's not going well for his aspirations. Good.

    Sa croisade pour le troisième lien Québec-Lévis et sa sortie intempestive contre les tergiversations de Christine Fréchette à ce sujet n’ont pas été payantes.

    Unfortunately Fréchette didn't admit yet that this is a bad idea, she's just "unsure" about the proposed route. And sadly Drainville is like a cockroach. If/when he loses, I expect him to find his way again into a party in power and continue pushing his BS.

  • I find being told to "be careful" irrationally irritating, especially when I'm on foot or on my bike and I'm told to "be very careful" before going on a road. Like, of course, if nobody told me I would have let a car hit me. Or if one hits me, it's because I wasn't careful enough.

    I understand what people mean when they say that before going on the road, but every time my brain is just like "ok, but some it I can't control".

  • As Bernard Drainville of Québec's CAQ once said, "lâchez-moi avec les GES". Meaning something like "won't you drop it with those greenhouse gases". His last title was the head of the Ministry of Environment and Fight Against Climate Change. And he proudly announced that the ban on internal combustion vehicles planned in 2035 was scrapped. He cried on TV when his party announced that maybe building a third bridge over the St-Lawrence for $10G to save a few minutes may not entirely be a good idea.

    He's also the xenophobic idiot that introduced ""Québec's Charter of Values". It didn't work but he still continues to this day to push his xenophobic agenda under the guise of secularism.

    He is a despicable human being, and until recently he was responsible for the Ministry of Environment in our province, until he resigned. And the shittiest part is, he resigned to run as the next leader of the CAQ and could be our next premier.

    In any way, whatever the next party in power, Québec probably won't help. Nobody really wants to. Every election everyone just wants economic growth. Ask them what's the most important every election? They'll tell you the economy is the most important thing, obviously! And have you seen the price of gas?! It's robbery! Gas should be cheaper!11!! That's what's important!

    So no, we won't meet any climate target.

  • micromobility - Bikes, scooters, boards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility @lemmy.world
    Featured

    Show us how you haul stuff with your bike

  • Canada @lemmy.ca

    Did Via Rail get more expensive? Some commuters say they're being priced out

    www.cbc.ca /news/canada/via-rail-expensive-9.6941115
  • HistoryPhotos @piefed.social

    Steamboat on the Yamaska river (Québec, Canada) by the late 19th century

  • Bicycle Touring and Bikepacking @lemmy.world

    Exploring Parc du Corridor Aérobique in the Québec Laurentians

  • Pareidolia @sh.itjust.works

    Happy train door

  • Bicycles @lemmy.ca

    Taking advantage of Québec's bike infra

  • Bicycle Touring and Bikepacking @lemmy.world

    Last three weekends at Yamaska National Park in Québec

  • linuxmemes @lemmy.world

    And Debian is supposed to be the stable one