Your post is missing projections, which leads to despair and inaction.
Bloomberg predicts that 5TW of solar will be installed between 2024-2030, over seven years. That's almost 1TW per year of solar alone, not including wind and other sources.
And projections for deployment of renewable energy have consistently been lower than the reality. We'll probably deploy 1 TW of renewable energy this year.
Plus all the political drama about the mandate of EVs is backwards. When EVs become cheaper than combustion vehicles throughout the world -- as they already are in China -- the problem will not be trying to force people to buy them. The problem will be installing enough 220V outlets for people to charge them, as well as building out the grid to handle the load.
This is implicit in Elon Musk and Trump's warnings about Chinese EVs. They will destroy US automakers, because they are so much cheaper: $15K for a sedan!
1. Pressure state lawmakers and environmental groups to permit more renewable energy and replace transmission lines with ones more efficient.
2. Pressure local school districts to teach vocational electronics classes, so high school graduates can fill all the electrician positions we're going to need.
3. Pressure local lawmakers to mandate landlords replace all gas appliances with electrics, plus install 220V outlets in renter parking spots for EV charging.
We can do this!
And we are not alone: every disaster adds more pressure on lawmakers to follow our suggestions.
Recent events have made it clear that for the wealthy and powerful, perhaps the only way of curbing their murderous appetites is prosecution and jail. The owners and executives of fossil fuel corporations have made it clear that no amount of death and destruction will deter them from their path. Let's see if prison will do the trick.
Thank you, Bill. I first heard about the "possibility" of global warming in an ecology class I took in my senior year in college. It was said we should start planning on mitigation but we probably had a hundred years or so. Yeah, right. We've already hit the marker in 2023. The point of no return is just 0.5 degrees Celsius away. People like us on Substack are aware and do what we can to reduce pollution. But, the petroleum industry is far more interested in making a fast buck while they can - what do they care, like me they'll be dead before catastrophe hits. They care little about their children and nothing about their grandchildren - what the heck they're leaving them a fortune aren't they? They should be grateful.
<<It’s all crucial for one overriding reason: there’s a deadly-earnest race on to see if we can build renewable energy and conserve energy use generally before the ongoing heating overwhelms the physical systems of the planet.>>
“Net zero” or even complete elimination of CO2 and CH4 (etc.) emissions will not reduce the trillions of tons that we’ve pumped into the atmosphere and oceans in the short human time scale that matters, allowing physics (and tipping points in the Arctic, Antarctic, AMOC, Himalayas and sea level) to cook our collective goose.
Emissions Reduction Alone (ERA) will merely stabilize global ocean temperature and acidity in addition to global atmospheric temperature at ungodly high unsurvivable levels … unless we simultaneously drawdown with things like biochar (h/t Paul Hawken and Jim Hansen) and restore earth’s brightness aka earthshine or albedo (i.e., reflectivity, not libido).
Please join me and international colleagues (scientists and engineers) in fortnightly zoom deliberations on any alternating Mondays and Thursdays so we can explain what Dr. Mann and IPCC are ignoring—before it’s too late, Bill 💚
To the readers here -- something happened today that will I think will bring about an ever increasing reduction in pollution production from both existing electric power-plants and fossil-fueled vehicle - bringing about an immediate positive change per retrofitted - repowered unit for the environment.
the beauty of it - is that there is absolutely nothing that the Oil and Gas Industry can do to stop it -- because it the best case of "good ol commerce and the better mouse-trap"
The POD MOD Project / which is a modular / solid-state / "over-unity" electric power supply that once started from it's own on-board "start-up" power source / can collectively / continuously produce all of the required / clean electricity each site - either "stationary" or "movable" will ever need at a fraction of what is being presently charged.
It was accepted for funding application by a major free -world foreign entity - to start manufacturing and installation over there - first - and then rest the world as fast as possible.
When the US consumer finds out that the "powers that be", i.e., all US Government Agencies contacted / all US Universities contacted / and all US Commerce entities that were formerly contact -- receiving almost zero response - and when responding - was totally negative -- "get their collective heads out of a certain orifice" -- the technology can be brought back to the Country where it was invented and developed and Patented.
What I see in the numbers presented here is that the electrification path is not working. Wind turbines and solar panels have been erected for two decades now, and thosands of billions invested in them already. The numbers Bill McKibben refers to regarding use of fossil fuels and corresponding emissions are - as he says - going up. This is actually a clear evidence that solar and wind is not enough to shut down the supply of fossil fuels. Because we still need them.
I encourage you all to visit www.enenergy.net. Here you can see how the problem can be solved!
Example of BRIGHT GREEN LAIRS - “It’s to give hell to the bad guys and help to the good ones.”
Such stupid good versus evil sloganism continues to serve the empire, by construct serve white 1st world interests. These folks always strive to identify universal needs and defend human rights, the environment, the planet etc. They most often do so “Through their language and their action they first define the enemy as privation (in the hope of preventing serious damage) and then recognize the enemy as sin.” (Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt)
But Fossil Fuels are NOT the Sin, nor the bad guys, you messianic green lair!
What are we pushing for? The idea that we can switch to renewables and poof, have a sustainable planet is a fantasy. If the global economy continues to grow as expected, it will double again by 2050- poof no biosphere, even without fossil fuels. We need a framework that includes renewable energy and fundamental changes to the way we structure our lives and economies. Something viable that people can digest and buy into. That's what we need to push for. Physicist Jeoffrey West is developing such a framework https://youtu.be/my9a9Ftr7ek?si=2sST7Wr02COha-kj
"my job, anyway, is not to assess how hopeful I’m feeling at the moment. It’s to give hell to the bad guys and help to the good ones."
Good for you not to assess your feelings. WAY too many people do that to zero or even negative effect. :)
Not so good on "giving hell." That only nibbles away at global supply. What about advocating for policies that reduce total demand for the use of CO2 emitting technologies: taxing net emissions and Investing in (and removing regulatory obstacles to) research, development, and deployment of zero- and negative-CO2 emitting technologies.
Electric vehicles strip mine the Earth, destroy the environment, require MORE ENERGY to produce, are MORE expensive to repair, and give CHINA control of global transportation… Reject them.
To Bill Mckibben: Thank you for not kicking me off your sub-stack when I was "chewing" on you.
You make this site work - along with all of the other good stuff you do.
Your not helping me directly - but allowing me to talk about it here - just made me work harder to make it work -- unfortunately for somewhere else first -- but I'll get it back here.
Carbon dioxide is a benign (harmless) gas essential to plant growth… All mammals expire it. It is not a pollutant, it does not warm Earth (it is .04% of the upper atmosphere), and the planet is not doing anything differently than it has done for centuries… What's different are the lies, the constant propaganda. We cannot CONTROL or change the climate. That is the scientific REALITY. Enjoy your day.
Your post is missing projections, which leads to despair and inaction.
Bloomberg predicts that 5TW of solar will be installed between 2024-2030, over seven years. That's almost 1TW per year of solar alone, not including wind and other sources.
https://x.com/Sustainable2050/status/1759703236557119837
And projections for deployment of renewable energy have consistently been lower than the reality. We'll probably deploy 1 TW of renewable energy this year.
Plus all the political drama about the mandate of EVs is backwards. When EVs become cheaper than combustion vehicles throughout the world -- as they already are in China -- the problem will not be trying to force people to buy them. The problem will be installing enough 220V outlets for people to charge them, as well as building out the grid to handle the load.
This is implicit in Elon Musk and Trump's warnings about Chinese EVs. They will destroy US automakers, because they are so much cheaper: $15K for a sedan!
https://thedriven.io/2024/02/22/corolla-killer-byd-launches-us15000-ev-in-direct-attack-on-legacy-makers/
We need to focus on three things right now:
1. Pressure state lawmakers and environmental groups to permit more renewable energy and replace transmission lines with ones more efficient.
2. Pressure local school districts to teach vocational electronics classes, so high school graduates can fill all the electrician positions we're going to need.
3. Pressure local lawmakers to mandate landlords replace all gas appliances with electrics, plus install 220V outlets in renter parking spots for EV charging.
We can do this!
And we are not alone: every disaster adds more pressure on lawmakers to follow our suggestions.
Recent events have made it clear that for the wealthy and powerful, perhaps the only way of curbing their murderous appetites is prosecution and jail. The owners and executives of fossil fuel corporations have made it clear that no amount of death and destruction will deter them from their path. Let's see if prison will do the trick.
To Greg Halverson -- there always is one right-wing / nut ball in the group.
Greg -- don't you wing-nuts get the picture:
"...You are totally entitled to your own opinions -- but you ae not entitled to your own facts..."
Sorry about that -- because you are so obvious as to what your are - someone that lost something a while back.
You figure out what it is -- because we don't care.
Thank you, Bill. I first heard about the "possibility" of global warming in an ecology class I took in my senior year in college. It was said we should start planning on mitigation but we probably had a hundred years or so. Yeah, right. We've already hit the marker in 2023. The point of no return is just 0.5 degrees Celsius away. People like us on Substack are aware and do what we can to reduce pollution. But, the petroleum industry is far more interested in making a fast buck while they can - what do they care, like me they'll be dead before catastrophe hits. They care little about their children and nothing about their grandchildren - what the heck they're leaving them a fortune aren't they? They should be grateful.
A sobering post, but thank you for introducing me to the writing of Megan Amram: wonderful satire.
<<It’s all crucial for one overriding reason: there’s a deadly-earnest race on to see if we can build renewable energy and conserve energy use generally before the ongoing heating overwhelms the physical systems of the planet.>>
“Net zero” or even complete elimination of CO2 and CH4 (etc.) emissions will not reduce the trillions of tons that we’ve pumped into the atmosphere and oceans in the short human time scale that matters, allowing physics (and tipping points in the Arctic, Antarctic, AMOC, Himalayas and sea level) to cook our collective goose.
Emissions Reduction Alone (ERA) will merely stabilize global ocean temperature and acidity in addition to global atmospheric temperature at ungodly high unsurvivable levels … unless we simultaneously drawdown with things like biochar (h/t Paul Hawken and Jim Hansen) and restore earth’s brightness aka earthshine or albedo (i.e., reflectivity, not libido).
Please join me and international colleagues (scientists and engineers) in fortnightly zoom deliberations on any alternating Mondays and Thursdays so we can explain what Dr. Mann and IPCC are ignoring—before it’s too late, Bill 💚
To the readers here -- something happened today that will I think will bring about an ever increasing reduction in pollution production from both existing electric power-plants and fossil-fueled vehicle - bringing about an immediate positive change per retrofitted - repowered unit for the environment.
the beauty of it - is that there is absolutely nothing that the Oil and Gas Industry can do to stop it -- because it the best case of "good ol commerce and the better mouse-trap"
The POD MOD Project / which is a modular / solid-state / "over-unity" electric power supply that once started from it's own on-board "start-up" power source / can collectively / continuously produce all of the required / clean electricity each site - either "stationary" or "movable" will ever need at a fraction of what is being presently charged.
It was accepted for funding application by a major free -world foreign entity - to start manufacturing and installation over there - first - and then rest the world as fast as possible.
When the US consumer finds out that the "powers that be", i.e., all US Government Agencies contacted / all US Universities contacted / and all US Commerce entities that were formerly contact -- receiving almost zero response - and when responding - was totally negative -- "get their collective heads out of a certain orifice" -- the technology can be brought back to the Country where it was invented and developed and Patented.
What I see in the numbers presented here is that the electrification path is not working. Wind turbines and solar panels have been erected for two decades now, and thosands of billions invested in them already. The numbers Bill McKibben refers to regarding use of fossil fuels and corresponding emissions are - as he says - going up. This is actually a clear evidence that solar and wind is not enough to shut down the supply of fossil fuels. Because we still need them.
I encourage you all to visit www.enenergy.net. Here you can see how the problem can be solved!
Example of BRIGHT GREEN LAIRS - “It’s to give hell to the bad guys and help to the good ones.”
Such stupid good versus evil sloganism continues to serve the empire, by construct serve white 1st world interests. These folks always strive to identify universal needs and defend human rights, the environment, the planet etc. They most often do so “Through their language and their action they first define the enemy as privation (in the hope of preventing serious damage) and then recognize the enemy as sin.” (Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt)
But Fossil Fuels are NOT the Sin, nor the bad guys, you messianic green lair!
What are we pushing for? The idea that we can switch to renewables and poof, have a sustainable planet is a fantasy. If the global economy continues to grow as expected, it will double again by 2050- poof no biosphere, even without fossil fuels. We need a framework that includes renewable energy and fundamental changes to the way we structure our lives and economies. Something viable that people can digest and buy into. That's what we need to push for. Physicist Jeoffrey West is developing such a framework https://youtu.be/my9a9Ftr7ek?si=2sST7Wr02COha-kj
"my job, anyway, is not to assess how hopeful I’m feeling at the moment. It’s to give hell to the bad guys and help to the good ones."
Good for you not to assess your feelings. WAY too many people do that to zero or even negative effect. :)
Not so good on "giving hell." That only nibbles away at global supply. What about advocating for policies that reduce total demand for the use of CO2 emitting technologies: taxing net emissions and Investing in (and removing regulatory obstacles to) research, development, and deployment of zero- and negative-CO2 emitting technologies.
see:
https://thomaslhutcheson.substack.com/p/legal-remedies-for-climate-change
Electric vehicles strip mine the Earth, destroy the environment, require MORE ENERGY to produce, are MORE expensive to repair, and give CHINA control of global transportation… Reject them.
To Bill Mckibben: Thank you for not kicking me off your sub-stack when I was "chewing" on you.
You make this site work - along with all of the other good stuff you do.
Your not helping me directly - but allowing me to talk about it here - just made me work harder to make it work -- unfortunately for somewhere else first -- but I'll get it back here.
Carbon dioxide is a benign (harmless) gas essential to plant growth… All mammals expire it. It is not a pollutant, it does not warm Earth (it is .04% of the upper atmosphere), and the planet is not doing anything differently than it has done for centuries… What's different are the lies, the constant propaganda. We cannot CONTROL or change the climate. That is the scientific REALITY. Enjoy your day.