Good news we are increasing the percent from renewables. The pace leaves something to be desired though:
23 years to increase 12% (2000 to 2023, 18% to 30%)
12 years to increase 10% (2011 to 2023, 20% to 30%)
6 years to increase 5% (2017 to 2023, 25% to 30%)
Based on the charts and write up, it seems like China is the main driver of us even making significant progress.
I'd like to be optimistic but 6 years to go 5% will have us totally renewable in 84 years (2023+[6x14]=2107).
The last paragraph I quoted talks about suburban population transport percentages. So assuming it's the same for inner Paris, the remainder would be walking and then public transportation.
Some good stats in the article:
... bicycles already surpass cars as a means of transportation in the interior of Paris, accounting for 11.2% of trips compared to 4.3%. A similar trend is seen in trips between the suburbs and the city center: 14% are made by bicycle and 11.8% by car.
Rue de Rivoli, with its two-way cycle lanes and its dedicated lane for buses and taxis ...
... Paris has more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) of facilities adapted for cyclists, including more than 300 km (186 m) of bike lanes and 52 km (32 m) of provisional lanes, according to the latest available municipal data, from 2021. The rest are lanes shared with cars or lanes only marked with paint on the ground.
By 2026, local officials want the entire city to be suitable for two-wheel transportation. To this end, it has set aside $250 million, $100 million more than in Hidalgo’s first term.
... only 27% of the “bike plan” has been carried out despite the fact that 62% of Hidalgo’s second term in office has already elapsed.
... indicated that 11.2% of trips in Paris were made by bike between 2022 and 2023, compared to 4.3% by car. The change in trend is clear. In 2021, two wheels still represented 5.6% of trips, while cars were 9%, according to Belliard.
... the research indicates that residents of the nearest suburbs also prefer to use the bike, with 14% of trips compared to 11.8% for cars. The figures are even better during rush hour, when 18.9% of trips are made by bike and only 6.6% by car. Travel on foot, however, continues to lead mobility within the municipality with 53%, followed by those made on public transit, with 30%. The study was carried out with 3,337 residents of the capital region who agreed to be fitted with a GPS tracker.
TLDR: Korean population shrunk. Total Fertility Rate: 0.72 children per woman.
Relevant text below:
The number of babies born in Korea fell below the 20,000 level for the first time for any February this year, data showed Wednesday, amid deepening woes about the country's demographics amid rapid aging and the ultra-low birthrate.
A total of 19,362 babies were born in February 2024, sliding 3.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.
It marked the lowest figure for any February since the statistics agency began compiling related data in 1981.
In terms of February readings, the number of newborns fell below 30,000 for the first time in 2018 and had stayed around the 20,000 level until last year.
The number of deaths advanced 9.6 percent on-year to 29,977 in February this year, the largest figure for any February.
The population, accordingly, declined by 10,614, the sharpest fall for any February ever. The number of deaths has outpaced that of newborns since November 2019.
The total fertility rate, which means the average number of expected births from a woman in her lifetime, also hit a record yearly low of 0.72, which came far below the 2.1 births per woman needed to maintain a stable population without immigration.
In the fourth quarter of last year alone, the rate came to 0.65, the lowest ever quarterly figure.
To add on to what NegativeInf said and linked, "0.25" is a weird way to say a quarter of a day. It makes more sense, to me, that the zero at the front was left off and it should read "0.25-6 hr per day".
I think this information was already posted a week or so ago, but if you haven't seen it yet the relevant text is:
Chinese battery giant CATL, supplier to some of Australia’s biggest grid-scale project developers, has unveiled a new containerised battery energy storage system promising a one-third increase in energy density, a 20% reduction in overall footprint and a longer service life.
Stored in a 20-foot TEU container, the mass producible Tener has a 6.25 MWh capacity which CATL says represents a 30% increase in energy density per unit area and a 20% reduction in the overall project footprint.
The new battery also claims to provide zero degradation of capacity over the first five years of use, “a significant advancement”, which CATL says increase the lifespan of batteries.
“Tener is equipped with long service life and zero-degradation cells tailored for energy storage applications, achieving an energy density of 430 Wh/L, an impressive milestone for LFP batteries used in energy storage,” the company says.
A bit disappointing, was hoping for a bigger milestone but this is still a positive.
Relevant Text:
California has set a benchmark for renewable energy, with wind, solar, and hydro providing 100% of the state's energy demand for 25 out of the last 32 days (and counting).
Added context is that it isn't for the full day, only needs to be part of the day (ex. 15 minutes), where renewables provided all of the electricity needs for the state.
The text is a bit vague about if this is an 80% cut from the total or 80% cut from the remaining, previously cut fees. Good news regardless though.
Article Text:
The [Biden] administration on Thursday finalized a rule that cuts costs for developing solar and wind energy on public lands.
The rule was expected to cut by 80 percent fees that are based on how much energy is produced through the year 2035.
A partial reduction is already in place based on [2022 guidance], but the administration said that the new rule contains further cuts and codifies them into the federal register.
The fee cuts become less dramatic after 2035 and will ratchet down in the following years to be just a 20 percent cut in 2038 and beyond.
The rule also seeks to expand energy production in designated “priority areas” by simplifying the process for issuing new rights to build wind and solar projects.
The administration announced additional milestones alongside the rule, saying that the Interior Department has now given the OK to enough renewable projects on public lands to power 12 million homes.
Interior Secretary [Deb Haaland] told reporters on a press call that the Biden administration has approved more than double the number of renewable energy projects than the Trump administration did during its four years.
“The previous administration did everything they could to hobble our department’s clean energy program, but we’re making up for lost time,” she said.
In addition to the cost cut and milestone, the administration announced that two major solar projects in California were now fully operational.
That's a good point about disease and I think it could be a potential cause of the low genetic prevalence.
I don't know about your roaming free option. I think if that were true, there would still be wild packs today or there would have been roving dog packs mentioned in historical text (possible but I don't recall any mention of them). Alternatively, they would have inter-breed with European varieties and had a more significant impact on genetics, but that's not seen.
While I agree that Europeans liked to remove/exterminate "uncivilized" things, that mostly applies to people. I suspect if the American dogs were significantly useful they would have made use of them.
This conversation allowed me to recall that the plains tribes utilized dogs as pack animals. Then once horses made their way onto the scene those tribes switched from dogs to horses for that role. I'm not sure what other "jobs" American dogs performed but I suspect if they were significantly utilized as pack animals they were probably breed for such and with that niche gone they may not have performed well in other "dog" tasks, compared to European varieties.
To conclude, for American dogs to be such a small percent of the current dog genome, I think, the European varieties had to significantly outlive their American counterparts. Whether because they were replaced by better performing European varieties/horses, because they died from European diseases, or a combination of those options.
After the arrival of Europeans, native American dogs almost completely disappeared, leaving a minimal genetic legacy in modern dog populations.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7116273/
I did not do a very deep dive but it looks like there were "domesticated" dogs in the Americans prior to Europeans, but they were almost completely replaced by their European counterparts. This leads me to believe the European versions were far superior for the intended usage. If the American version was indeed significantly inferior for their intended purposes, they may have been at or below the effectiveness/usefulness levels of semi-domesticated animals, like foxes.
Edit: The_Sasswagon brings up a good point about the effects of potential European diseases on American dogs.
Mods, perhaps a weekly post like this would be beneficial? Lowering the bar to entry with some available support and helping to keep converts.
My understanding is that some of the benefits China would get from invading Taiwan is the control of Taiwan's world-leading semiconductor industry. So making it public knowledge that any invading force (i.e. China) would not be able to take over their production capabilities is a small deterrent.