Tavares Standfield wrote:DrW,
Putting aside your hatred of Western religion I was hoping you could offer your insight on something.
I certainly would not characterize my attitude toward religion as one of hatred. It is more one of annoyance toward the predatory leaders mixed with some measure of of pity for the duped followers.
Tavares Standfield wrote: If the West does everything it can/should to address climate change while China, Russia, India, and others make no changes and continue to 1) use dirty energy and 2) reproduce at high rates (well, not China) then all Western efforts will be completely useless. Indeed, they are likely dangerous. Why let the Chinese have cheap energy -- to build cars and armies -- while we limit ourselves to solar?
If we can't force the whole world to change then any individual national change is completely absurd.
How would you address this problem? What type of global governance would you put in place to force all people and nations to stop breeding and stop making use of coal etc... in my opinion, we need a strong UN Secretary General to demand that, in this specific area, nations give up their right to self-determination and follow the global requirement.
TS
First of all - and this is important - no one I know of is claiming that we should ever rely completely on solar power. I trust that you meant this statement as an absurd example to make a point.
In order to have stable power grids, solar cannot make up more than a small percentage of the total generating capacity. Solar power is expensive and if there is too much of it in the generation mix, there can be (will be) big problems on cloudy days.
There are power grids in Southern California that have learned this lesson the hard way. Re-balancing generation mix can be very costly, especially if too much of the generation budget went into developing solar in the first place.
Anyway, as I have tried to make clear, it is too late to avoid the untoward consequences of rapid climate change. It may have been too late a long time ago.
In my opinion, and that of many others, what we need to do now is to prepare to avoid or mitigate those consequences. What is to be done?
You are absolutely correct in saying that we cannot control foreign governments when it comes to energy resource usage. In fact, the US is seen, and rightly so, as the major offender when it comes to excessive fossil fuel use
per capita and GHG emissions in general.
That is changing now, to some extent, thanks to stricter emission limits on coal fired power plants by the Obama Administration, stricter vehicle emission standards, and the increasing availability of relatively clean natural gas from fracking in the US.
Also tipping the balance, as you mentioned, is the rapid expansion of coal usage in China and India. If this trend continues, the US will continue to curb the growth in GHG emissions, while emissions from China and India increase. Due to high energy prices and a lack of native clean fossil fuel resources, GHG emissions from Europe are relatively stable for the time being.
Realistic intermediate term planning is important. In order to accomplish this in the US, we need to change attitudes. We need to be learn to be happy with smaller cars, smaller houses, and be willing to pay for more energy efficient appliances and equipment.
We need to start approving funding for projects like the new levies in New Orleans or seawalls in New York before the next disaster strikes. We need to stop building on forest fire prone lands in the west.
Here in Florida, we have building codes that would drive folks in the Midwest crazy. But since they have been in place, I know of no homes that have been completely destroyed (as they often were in the past) by hurricane winds.
We need to phase out federal disaster relief bail outs for homeowners who choose to live in flood or storm surge prone areas. We just won't have the resources in the future to do this. Folks will have to take the risks and suffer the reduction in property values that come with this change in policy.
In terms of reducing GHG emissions, we can continue the trend toward smaller displacement engines. (My 2.0 liter twin turbo blows the doors of of my wife's normally aspirated 3.5 liter - and uses a lot less fuel doing it.)
In short, we cannot worry too much about what we cannot control. Each region, each country, and each local jurisdiction must plan and prepare internally, while seeking cooperation with other willing communities, where possible.
Those communities, of whatever size, that start early, develop the best plans, and use their resources wisely, will likely be the ones that emerge in the best shape once the climate re-stabilizes (rate of change slows), and it eventually will.