Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please.
I’m now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I’ll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow me on Mastodon here.
John Quiggin 
“The five greatest existential risks to humanity are climate change, nuclear war, artificial intelligence (AI) risks, pandemics, and catastrophic misuse of synthetic biology. These risks are often interconnected and could lead to a civilization collapse through cascading effects rather than a single event.” – Google AI.
Let’s look first at climate change. Below is the summary from a recent ABC news story:
“Inaction on 1.5C climate change target a ‘moral failure’, says UN secretary-general at COP30”.
“World leaders are gathering for the COP30 climate conference in Brazil’s rainforest city of Belém.
UN secretary-general António Guterres said nations failing to hit a 1.5 degrees Celsius target (limit) were guilty of a “moral failure” and must now “choose to lead or be led to ruin”.
Missing from the line-up at the key summit are the leaders of four of the world’s five most-polluting economies: China, the United States, India and Russia.”
The key takeaway is that “the leaders of four of the world’s five most-polluting economies: China, the United States, India and Russia” are missing. And these countries have just skipped out on meeting their targets. That’s in the latest news.
So, commitment to and real action for dealing with climate change is about 4/5ths dead which effectively equals totally dead, just as we reach the key +1.5 C rise over pre-industrial levels: the temperature at which we were supposed to cap the rise. Beyond this cap outright catastrophe looms.
The fight is lost. We cannot stop climate change under these conditions of great power / great polluter intransigence. Hence, we are doomed.
I have become perforce a kind of disaster-prepper in an outwardly low-key way. I am simply preparing my property and house, as best I can, to withstand ever-increasing frequencies and intensities of severe storms, cyclones, intense rain events and intense droughts, plus ever-increasing social unrest and crime. It is an expensive process. It may delay disaster and misery for us personally for a while. But sooner or later it will prove in vain.
Everything is ultimately in vain now since we chose not to stop climate change.
A note on CCS
I asked a rhetorical question here ( https://johnquigginblog.substack.com/p/ccs-is-a-dead-horse/comment/172134171 ) about total storage capacity for large-scale CCS. Mike Barnard has answered it ( https://cleantechnica.com/2025/11/13/the-short-list-of-climate-actions-that-will-work-2/ ) :
“Years ago, I pointed out that while there’s plenty of underground space, CO₂ is far less dense than the oil and gas we’ve been extracting. That means it takes up far more volume. Recent studies have confirmed this: the actual viable storage capacity for CO₂ is about one-tenth of what earlier optimistic projections claimed.”
So to find the storage space for solving overshoot, you would have to convert the C02 into liquid or solid form for burial, reverse oil or reverse coal. This is a pipe dream.
Good news from Africa, for a change
Mike Barnard celebrates the African Continental Free Trade Area https://cleantechnica.com/2025/11/12/crocodile-economics-comes-to-africa-trade-solar-and-the-new-energy-map/
He makes the important connection to the million-strong Chinese diaspora on the continent, as enablers of trade with Chinese manufacturers and contractors for infrastructure. They greatly increase the chances for South Africa say emulating the great 15 GW Pakistani solar panel consumer strike against an inefficient, hidebound and probably corrupt utility establishment. The latest official plan for South African electricity is built round high-cost coal and nuclear, I kid you not. But ESKOM is now up against Mr. Chang’s local electronics store and his DIY home solar kits. My money is on Mr. Chang. It’s pretty much raw capitalism at work, with little lip service to the environment, democracy or equality, but it’s what’s on the table.
Wait … we really can’t figure out how to make a gas into a liquid, or a solid?
Great news about solar in Africa though. (And per the NYT, I guess, all over the world that isn’t in the US.) (Though, really, I think there is a good bit of it happening here too, even in red states … but no one wants to talk about it.)
So … does anyone know, what sort of refrigerant should I be trying to use? We’ve never had AC – we didn’t need it before.
We are currently shopping for a heat pump. (Do not even get me started on how stupid this process is here. I mean, it’s just … like chewing on pebbles, trying to figure anything out. Anyway.)
Which one should we get? Who besides a salesperson can I get to help me with this? Are there websites that help regular people with these things? California has lots of sites to help the industry – but I do not see help for consumers. (I mean, I suppose there are still Energy Star ratings. And the Seer ones. But that doesn’t tell me about the chemicals.)
I’m a bit sorry to be such a whiner. But,otoh, if we want people to make better choices, maybe don’t leave them alone like this.
“..we really can’t figure out how to make a gas into a liquid, or a solid?”
This is pure trolling, to maintain CO2 in a non vaporous form requires containment in a high pressure state. Liquid CO2 has a low viscosity so the concept that it can be easily pumped into a pressured storage facility is a fantasy.
That should read “containment in a high pressure form”.
Roger-f,
I don’t think it was trolling. Not everyone has enough physics to understand when certain hyped solutions have basic reasons why they won’t work. Having said that, I don’t a physics degree either just a good high school grade long ago and a bit of reading since.
CCS has failed. It was always going to fail. It was/is a misdirection and a boondoggle so that fossil fuel companies could continue business as usual. They delayed action long enough to make a lot more money and wreck our climate.
N,
You are not being a whiner. Those are legitimate questions and concerns.
There is not enough help for consumers these days and governments are indeed much more interested in helping big business than in helping consumers or saving the environment.
You can try Google AI for recommendations. Then you can try all the different questions you have. Don’t take the AI answer as gospel but use it to help find sites that address those questions too.
For example, I searched for “air conditioning recommendations” and got this AI answer which is probably for the Australian context.
“For air conditioner recommendations, Mitsubishi Electric is a top choice for reliability, while brands like Daikin, Panasonic, and Carrier are frequently cited for innovation and efficiency. For budget-friendly options, brands like TCL or Hisense may be worth considering, depending on the model and a user’s specific needs and location.”
For California I asked :
“air conditioning systems and brands recommended for California?”
For California, reliable and energy-efficient AC brands often recommended include Carrier, Trane, Lennox, and Rheem. Other popular brands known for their performance and reliability are American Standard and Daikin. A good system for California should be durable and energy-efficient, and local factors like regional climate and specific home needs should also be considered.
Highly recommended brands
You can also ask the AI what system you need for your situation. As I say, then check the AI answer with other searches. All this assumes you have and are comfortable with using the internet to find information.
Honestly, I would go for the highest quality system you can afford. Second best and cheap systems will likely break down in no time. Reverse cycle inverter systems can cool in summer and heat in winter. The power bills will likely be high but at least inverter systems are the most efficient.
What about the climate? This is a big concern now. But people often have houses, units or flats that become dangerously hot inside if not air conditioned in the worst summer months or heatwaves. With existing poor passive design of residences, people are locked into the air conditioning conundrum. Perhaps you have or can get solar power to help with this but of course that is another whole can of problems for the average person. Perhaps your electricity utility is already supplying “green” power. Let us hope so. We are all trapped in the current highly imperfect system no matter which country we live in. Our options for living comfortably, even surviving [1], and saving the planet as well are getting more and more constricted.
Note 1: Heat stroke can kill. Some (many?) domiciles were not built for the rapidly warming climate we now face. Air conditioning can be or become a survival requirement (depending on your health and situation) during a major heat wave if there is no other way you can escape the heat day and night.