Climate what if

With a POD of 1945, how do we get a planet with the least climate change while maintaining the high standard of living and global trade we are used to?

For example I think a real difference might have been made if a revolution in building insulation had taken place during the post war building boom, as half of energy expenditure goes into heating and air conditioning. Once built, the reduced carbon footprint is locked-in for decades.
 
The warnings of people like Prof. James Lovelock (of Gaia Hypothisis 'fame' and inventor of the Electron Capture Detector) and other environmentalists are taken more serious far earlier

Greater use is made of Nuclear power and greater investment into other renewable power sources that reduce the overall carbon impact over non renewables

Tidal power
Geothermal
Wind farms

Double glazing becomes a commercial product earlier than OTL - which was technically 1944 in the US - the actual product was developed earlier

Have the take up of this product be mirrored in Europe at around the same time - perhaps have all new built buildings have to have double glazing

Insulation has been mentioned with regards to asbestos - it was already being used and was always going to be a ball ache to dispose of anyway - is there a realistic alternative to asbestos?

Loft insulation?

Most importantly a greater understanding and education of all things related to Climate change earlier

The Gaia theory for eample was sneeringly dismissed as hippy trash nonsense at the time - a better appreciation by the mainstream at the time would have better prepared humanity to make the necessary changes earlier
 
Some of the biggest developments in energy efficiency are very recent, after the year 2000. Before that time photovoltaic cells were very inefficient. Lithium batteries were not yet perfected. Of course, the revolutionary LED lighting systems are quite new. Some of the most practical changes decades ago would be less suburbanization and less driving. Keep railroads strong instead of semi trucks on the highways.
 
Some of the biggest developments in energy efficiency are very recent, after the year 2000. Before that time photovoltaic cells were very inefficient. Lithium batteries were not yet perfected. Of course, the revolutionary LED lighting systems are quite new. Some of the most practical changes decades ago would be less suburbanization and less driving. Keep railroads strong instead of semi trucks on the highways.

Dr Beeching has an accident - that will please the rail enthuisasts
 
Alluding to what Cryhavoc mentioned above but if you butterfly away Three Mile Island and Chernobyl that will help. Less accidents means more nuclear plants means less carbon emissions.
 
Make Solar Water Heaters more popular.
That could happen in the 70's as a result of the energy crisis.
IIRC Jimmy Carter installed Solar Panels at the White House. (Reagan had them removed)
Could it become the thing to do? Put up solar water panels?
 
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How did he do this exactly? Climb on the roof and scream curses at them?

- BNC
That would make a good skit ... Auto spelling and many use phones Of course we should all read what we type at least once, but humans are lazy, and also our brains miss obvious typos quite often and just fill in the correct word.

Example: I would like an equatible solution and not war with you

Alternative: 2 waves of bombers and fighter attacking your pretty tropical port.

:)

Humor

On the ops topic

Sure, but you have to make it cost effective.

No one thinks we are going to effect the whole planet in 1950.. Hell people have a hard time with it now.

Industry and nations will go to what works best and makes money. If large potions use a renewable and are not so on the grid, what happens to taxes and all those jobs associated with coal, oil, gas etc.

That's jobs and money

As for asbestos, that is one I think everyone would like back except those selling it and those paying for ignoring it.

Nuclear energy

It's awesome, Noone wants it in their backyard - can't say I blame them

Solar, its only been in the last 20 years that strides in batteries and efficency makes it really valuable and useful.

Wind is also good but see above
 
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Insulation in 1948 means asbestos. Consider the havoc when the crisis is identified in the early seventies.

Modern insulation is glass wool, first patented in the US in 1933. Surely earlier investment in mass production and awareness on asbestos could have the desired effect. Double and triple window glazing also greatly improved insulation. Making cheap glass panels via float glass was introduced in the UK in the 1950s. This is easily doable earlier as well. Double glazing insulation was done by the Romans.
 
If fiberglass was patented in 1933, the patent would expire in 1950. But the problem is that people did not understand the hazards of asbestos until after 1970. You also had ceramic mineral wool, I'm not sure when that was patented. It is not just a matter of safe material being available, it is a matter of a large existing industry mining asbestos and manufacturing insulation in fully-amortized plants.
 
If fiberglass was patented in 1933, the patent would expire in 1950. But the problem is that people did not understand the hazards of asbestos until after 1970. You also had ceramic mineral wool, I'm not sure when that was patented. It is not just a matter of safe material being available, it is a matter of a large existing industry mining asbestos and manufacturing insulation in fully-amortized plants.

We knew asbestos can be lethal to workers and had regulations in place by the early 30s; and by the 1940s it was known to cause mesothelioma. It’s just that lots of things were dangerous and people accepted the danger back then. Glass wool aka manmade asbestos has similar dangers as well. It wont surprise me if fifty years from now we ban them when millions of tons of old glass wool start getting improperly disposed.

In terms of production asbestos peaked at 4.8 million tons per year in the 1970s while today its down to 2 million tons and glass wool is over 7 million tons per year, expected to double by 2030. China, which did not ban asbestos manufactures both to keep up with demand. So even absent health concerns and existing asbestos industry there would be a market for glass wool.
 
Some of the biggest developments in energy efficiency are very recent, after the year 2000. Before that time photovoltaic cells were very inefficient. Lithium batteries were not yet perfected. Of course, the revolutionary LED lighting systems are quite new. Some of the most practical changes decades ago would be less suburbanization and less driving. Keep railroads strong instead of semi trucks on the highways.

I guess part of the question is how much earlier those breakthroughs could happen in a world where government and business R and D is focused on energy efficiency and alternative energy in a big way. It's not like you could get modern photovoltaics by 1960, but you could maybe get a decade or two ahead of OTL?

Combine that sort of thing with a big rush to nuclear (like France had in the 1980s) being replicated in other nations and a lot could get done. You'd still have to electrify or otherwise decarbonize transport though.
 
I guess part of the question is how much earlier those breakthroughs could happen in a world where government and business R and D is focused on energy efficiency and alternative energy in a big way. It's not like you could get modern photovoltaics by 1960, but you could maybe get a decade or two ahead of OTL?

Combine that sort of thing with a big rush to nuclear (like France had in the 1980s) being replicated in other nations and a lot could get done. You'd still have to electrify or otherwise decarbonize transport though.

The reason I propose a POD at 1945 is partly because the world was used to wartime rationing and efficiency. Better insulation ends up saving money, especially strategic materials like petroleum. In light of that the post-war construction boom could have been better engineered for sustainability.

On the homefront we’ve had some notible successes like CFL light bulbs which could probably have been made earlier.

Anyway speaking of insulation it completely skipped my mind the latest alternative insulation: Hempcrete. Pretty low tech stuff, just chopped hemp plants mixed with lime and water. Far lower carbon footprint than glass wool, carbon negative in fact as you take atmospheric carbon to grow hemp.

benefits_of_hempcrete-300x300.png
 
The reason I propose a POD at 1945 is partly because the world was used to wartime rationing and efficiency. Better insulation ends up saving money, especially strategic materials like petroleum. In light of that the post-war construction boom could have been better engineered for sustainability.

On the homefront we’ve had some notible successes like CFL light bulbs which could probably have been made earlier.

Anyway speaking of insulation it completely skipped my mind the latest alternative insulation: Hempcrete. Pretty low tech stuff, just chopped hemp plants mixed with lime and water. Far lower carbon footprint than glass wool, carbon negative in fact as you take atmospheric carbon to grow hemp.

benefits_of_hempcrete-300x300.png

CFL bulbs were kind of shitty, what with the Mercury and shorter than advertised service life. Earlier LED bulbs could have legit saved a lot of electricity though.
 
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