[HN Gopher] Amazon, despite climate pledge, fought to kill emiss...
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       Amazon, despite climate pledge, fought to kill emissions bill in
       Oregon
        
       Author : hackermatic
       Score  : 45 points
       Date   : 2023-04-04 18:43 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.washingtonpost.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.washingtonpost.com)
        
       | exabrial wrote:
       | Climate pledges and green promises are _all_ marketing BS.
       | Consumers fall for it. There's a name for it: Green Washing.
        
         | squokko wrote:
         | The emissions regulations are also marketing BS. Like Oregon
         | can affect global CO2 levels.
        
           | nebula8804 wrote:
           | Every little bit counts.
        
             | exabrial wrote:
             | I think his point is: taking a teaspoon of water out of the
             | ocean and bolding marching back into town proclaiming you
             | fought ocean level rise is a little disingenuous.
        
               | paulryanrogers wrote:
               | This analogy seems out of proportion itself. There is
               | only so much arable land on earth, and a large state is
               | probably single digit percentage. Its energy needs are
               | likely significant, even in the big picture.
        
               | nebula8804 wrote:
               | > taking a teaspoon of water out of the ocean
               | 
               | A teaspoon is the wrong terminology in the context of
               | Oregon given they produce 0.7% of the US's CO2 emissions.
               | Because they are already producing so little CO2 a
               | teaspoon elsewhere is a large improvement there.
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_ter
               | rit...
               | 
               | > and bolding marching back into town proclaiming you
               | fought ocean level rise is a little disingenuous
               | 
               | given this is Oregon we are talking about, their idea of
               | enacting meaningful change is different from other states
               | idea of meaningful changes just due to the fact that
               | Oregon has so much green energy already. So these little
               | changes get them further to 100% reduction much easier
               | and thus are meaningful in this context. Reading the
               | article Amazon wanted to increase natural gas capacity
               | because the biofuels are not yet ready in Oregon. It
               | makes less sense to do this in a state like Oregon. Why
               | are they even there in the first place? I assume it due
               | to the cheap electricity (thanks in part to the natural
               | renewable energy sources they already have)
        
             | squokko wrote:
             | Not when China is _building_ coal fired power plants. It 's
             | like taking water out of the Titanic with an eyedropper
             | saying "every little bit counts." Sometimes, it doesn't.
        
               | barbazoo wrote:
               | This is misleading, China is actually slooowly phasing
               | out coal from its energy mix, see
               | https://ourworldindata.org/energy/country/china (pretty
               | far down). Yes, they're adding coal but they're adding
               | renewables at a higher rate.
        
               | squokko wrote:
               | https://www.npr.org/2023/03/02/1160441919/china-is-
               | building-...
               | 
               | The US is hampering its own businesses so that Chinese
               | businesses can belch even more CO2 into the air. Simple
               | as that.
        
               | paulryanrogers wrote:
               | US industrialized sooner and belched far more in the
               | past. China isn't perfect, yet does seem to be making big
               | changes in the right direction.
        
               | barbazoo wrote:
               | Relatively speaking, China still appears to be reducing
               | the the energy coming from coal compared to renewables.
        
               | seanmcdirmid wrote:
               | Coal rose 2.3% in 2022 over 2021 due to an energy crisis
               | (i.e. natural gas got really expensive). But overall this
               | is correct.
               | 
               | Having lived in Beijing when the air was routinely "crazy
               | bad", the Chinese are very motivated to clean things up
               | for their own good.
        
         | decremental wrote:
         | [flagged]
        
           | nebula8804 wrote:
           | Ok i'll bite. What are the ruling class's current desires?
        
       | simplotek wrote:
       | Amazon also pledged to be the world's best employer to then fire
       | thousands by email.
        
       | suddenclarity wrote:
       | So in short, companies can't expand or build new due to lack of
       | green infrastructure. The proposed solution is to make it illegal
       | to use other than approved types of electricity. Amazon says it
       | makes no sense unless the infrastructure is expanded as well.
       | 
       | Seems difficult to disagree considering my country is burning oil
       | to get through the winter. Shutting down production that takes 20
       | years to rebuild was apparently a bad idea.
        
         | paulryanrogers wrote:
         | What production takes 20y to rebuild? Forests for wood burning?
        
       | alfalfasprout wrote:
       | At this point, I wouldn't be surprised to see articles about
       | Amazon trafficking human children to use them as labelers for AI
       | models. Very evil company.
        
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       (page generated 2023-04-04 23:01 UTC)