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this post was submitted on 17 May 2026
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Climate
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Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.
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There are several compounding factors that are worrying.
Electrical power is essential for AC, and it is in part still generated by Diesel generators. As fuel is more expensive, the electrical grid can fail at times of the highest load.
Another factor I am thinking about is that the Hormuz crisis and reduction of trade activity leads to a decrease of shipping. Ships use heavy fuel which has a lot of sulfur. Sulfur burns to sulfur dioxide which has white smoke and facilitates condensation of clouds, this increases the albedo (reflectivity of the earth surface). Less shipping means less albedo around the mayor shipping routes, which means more heating. This is a factor that seems to cause some of the extreme weather and flooding in the Mediterranean.
I'd love to see a quantification of how the current shipping disruption compares with the impact of the low-sulfur bunker fuel standard that went into effect a few years back.
A really good question.
There was also a slowdown in international trade and pollution from flights in 2020, and a heavy reduction in ship transports in 2008. August 2020 had a short but impactful heat wave in Europe - in Germany, more people died from heat than from COVID-19 that year.