Thread by @philsturgeon

🌍 If we want to get to carbon neutrality we have to emit some carbon to do it. Construction creates emissions. Solar panels, wind turbines, electric trains, all of these things have a cost/benefit analysis and lifecycle analysis needs to be considered. 🧵

The argument “we cannot build wind/solar because of the construction emissions” is clearly utter nonsense, but it’s popular nonsense. It was the main premise of the “documentary” Planet of the Humans, and its right from the fossil fuel industry handbook. ecologi.com/articles/clima…

Here’s a chart comparing the CO2 emissions per kilowatt-hour that we get from each power source, compared to how much greenhouse gas was created to make it. See if you can notice a difference between renewables and fossil fuels. Way less. But still emissions. So... good or bad?

This is a nirvana fallacy. “It’s not perfect so it’s bad.” The main goal is to make clean energy input big enough that we displace the need for dirty energy. Reduce energy demand, increase clean energy input, phase out dirty energy. Example: Yay Scotland. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla…

So if you agree with this premise, let’s apply the same thinking to transportation, because we’ve already made huge progress in the energy sector. People currently drive and fly everywhere, and we know thats not going to get carbon neutral for a long long time. Cars right now.

https://twitter.com/philatrail/status/1379721632495833090

There’s a strong urge for folks to say “well people won’t need to move around as much post pandemic” but this wasn’t true during the pandemic. Roads were rammed. Flights continued. It comes from a misunderstand of rail use. It’s not as commute heavy as you think, also freight.

https://twitter.com/philsturgeon/status/1374440582530015241

So we still need to figure out how to reduce air/car/truck activity across the country, now and long-term. For that we need to build solutions to the problem, but can we afford to be creating more CO2 right now? Arg. That’s a tricky one, let’s consider the lifecycle analysis.

Ok cool so HS2 after 60 years will either have less impact on CO2e than a pointless tunnel near Stonehenge, or it will have massively reduced emissions overall. Not 120 years. 60 is still a lot though right? Well that’s based on barely anyone using it! Could be WAY quicker.

https://twitter.com/philsturgeon/status/1374030250011729921

So how do we make that happen? Sure you probably aren’t going to take a train to Aldi for groceries, but we could reduce domestic air travel if we pull a France and ban domestic air routes served by quick trains. They’ve limited it to routes with a 2.5 hour train. A good start.

https://twitter.com/philsturgeon/status/1381287182472728584

We could also reduce the need for people to need any sort of transportation by making more safe bicycle routes, and not building houses in the middle of bloody nowhere, but those are immediate partial solutions, which give us the carbon budget to create long term solutions.

https://twitter.com/ABeardWalks/status/1381245206377431042

I’m currently cycling from South Wales to Birmingham, then Leeds, then Middlesborough. It’s a work trip. I can’t plant trees to avoid the climate crisis over zoom. I’ve been hit by one car already this week so it’s not hard to imagine why more people don’t do this. Also it’s hard

Loads of people want to escape car-centric lifestyles, we just have to help them do it. Here’s a family trying to just ride bikes around and they get screamed at whenever they ask if they can have safe bike lanes for their kids. This is the first step to short term CO2 reduction.

https://twitter.com/erikwdv/status/1377880835383173121

In the mean time let’s shut down every single project which will only increase emissions forever. No more duel carriage ways, coal mines, coal plants, gas plants, or bloody airport extensions, and support long term decarbonisation of transport via rail. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…

P.S every time @HS2Ltd can find a way to reduce construction emissions they must absolutely take it, and not make any excuses. Like using old turbine blades (usually incinerated) in place of rebar for concrete. Amazing if this is happening at scale. mediacentre.hs2.org.uk/news/hs2-innov…