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- Tl;dr :
Without improbable breakthroughs in Carbon Capture, or devastating energy crises, it’s too late to prevent going above 1.5C (though surpassing it and coming back down may be possible).
But, de-fossilfuelification of the energy sector is already inevitable due to market forces alone, as well as the technological capital already built.
Same goes for the actual monetary capital needed for the rapid transition. The amount we need to spend is similar in scope to (other) global-scale government spending programs (on other big issues like COVID, as well as… well, fossil fuel subsidies…)
What is limiting us, is political will.
- Tl;dr end
My opinion now: Interesting stats, funky way to display graphs (worth checking the article for that alone lol), my tldr is way to short to get anything but the spirit of the article. (The droplets of hidden passive aggressive snark in some parts of it, like the “governments procrastinated the solution and now they have to last-minute-panic it” graph, were absolutely refreshing)
Someone should definitely summon the tldr bot, and honestly, people should just check the article, it’s good, if a little on the doomscrolly side
It’s been North American policy for years now that there’s no chance of keeping temperature below 1.5C. We’ve ramped up natural gas production at a terrifying rate, knowing that it will be worse for the environment on a 20-year (and maybe even a 100-year) time scale because of fugitive emissions, but trusting that it will eventually equalize.
That policy is just plain fucked up because it takes the brunt of the environmental impact today and pushes the recovery to some unknown time far in the future, but that’s the policy that we’ve taken. In fact, US energy production from fossil fuels has risen by 40% since it’s plateau in the 1970s-2000s period. Fourty percent.
“What climate change? Scientist are trying to steal your money!!!”
- Politicians and the 1% hoping Musk Rat finishes his Mars plans soon.