Most effective way to stop global warming

[Minimalist]

No chance, mate.

[Alan V]

I'm going to get crucified for this but, here goes, for measures to have any appreciable effect we need Russia, China and India as the worst emitters on board, however for reasons that should be obvious to a blind man that's unlikely to happen, currently China is building on average one new coal fired power station a week.

We also need to have an honest discussion about the viability of so called green energy (aka renewables) my son is a solar panel technician in Australia, apparently it takes on average 7 years optimal use for a solar panel to work off it's manufacturing carbon footprint they're also hideously polluting to manufacture. Wind turbine manufacture uses vast quantities of steel (sometimes carbon fibre too) and concrete, the cement for which liberates gargantuan quantities of carbon dioxide during manufacture, then there's electric cars the lithium and cobalt for which is often strip mined causing a lot of pollution and environmental damage and in many countries is mined using exploitative child labour plus they keep bursting into flames for some reason. Unfortunately green energy it would appear isn't actually that green plus what do we do when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine?

Now before you all completely lose your shit at me please understand I am NOT a climate change denier, I absolutely believe the science of anthropogenic climate change I have my own extremely good reasons for knowing it's real based on 56 years of being alive on this planet and observing drastic changes to the weather patterns, I'm just not convinced we are going to be able to do anything meaningful about it before the tipping point, to do so would require international cooperation unparalleled in human history (not going to happen unfortunately) in fact I reckon it would actually require a one world government (again something that just ain't gonna happen ). So I'm sorry to be a Jeremiah but I'm pretty much certain it's already way too late, I'm just glad I'll be dead before the worst of it impacts the planet, be grateful for small mercies as my old mum says. Ok you can all kill me now .

I haven't been posting since August and I don't plan to start posting again regularly, but I did want to answer this post and a few points about this discussion in general.

First, about the worst emitters: "Three-quarters of all greenhouse gases since the industrial revolution have been emitted, not surprisingly, by industrial nations. Since the poorest countries use little energy per capita, they generally need not make great efforts to reduce climate change. The exceptions are China and India, whose huge populations have great impacts. China overtook the U.S. in 2008 to become the largest emitter of greenhouse gases. The 15 largest emitters, in order, are: China, the U.S., the European Union, India, the Russian Federation, Japan, Korea, Canada, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Indonesia, Brazil, Australia, and South Africa.  Different countries have different per capita carbon footprints. Annually, Americans average a 15 ton carbon footprint. This doesn’t even count the emissions other countries produce with their manufacturing to create the products we buy. The global average carbon footprint is only 4 tons annually in comparison. The Chinese only have a per capita carbon footprint of 7.5 tons annually, and the Indians 2 tons.  The average American is responsible for twice as much CO₂ emission as the average Japanese or European, which means we could have roughly the same standard of living while burning far fewer fossil fuels if we were more clever about it."  This was quoted from the climate change discussion, as an example of the information available there.

Second, humanity will be running out of affordable fossil fuels later this century, so converting to new energy sources is not a question of whether but when.  Hopefully the "when" will be after we have used enough fossil fuels to convert to new energy sources but before we have made climate change so bad that we can't recover from it.

Third, there is no magic bullet solution to climate change, unless perhaps nuclear fusion is scaled up in time (a very long shot).  Instead, we have to apply the solutions we already have until we develop better ones.  Since climate change is such a huge and pervasive problem, we have to tackle it in many separate ways simultaneously.  This is called the wedge strategy, where smaller efforts in numerous areas add up to the kind of big impacts we need.  I covered all of this in my posts in the climate change discussion, starting with post #79 on page four and ending with post #170 on page seven, based on my reading of over fifty books on the subject (solutions are discussed in the later posts).  For instance, sun and wind power together can help offset the intermittency problems with both, as would older nuclear power plants and smart grids to distribute electricity.  There are less-impactful recipes for concrete available.  We also need to bring our population numbers down and conserve energy until we can get other solutions into place and working for us.

Fourth, everyone knows that green energy technologies have their own problems, so at a point it all comes down to doing the math.  For an overview, I would suggest reading Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, but in general green technology solutions are still better than burning fossil fuels.

Finally, we humans, right now, have all the technical solutions we need to fight climate change.  The question is whether we will apply them in time to avoid the many tipping points which could push our climate in entirely new directions away from the relatively steady state we have enjoyed in our short history.  So it all comes down to human nature, but that is the same human nature which created climate change to begin with.  Hopefully we will all recognize that fighting climate change is in our best interests, both in the short run and in the long run.  However, I can't even predict if Americans will avoid voting for a pathologically-lying, authoritarian, malignant narcissist for president again next year.

Merry Christmas!