We need to stop burning stuff
A "maniacal sense of urgency" is needed to solve climate change. Burning stuff is not the way.
It seems that humans have an ingrained desire to burn stuff. Ever since our ancestors discovered fire, we’ve been using it for warmth, light, cooking, and protection from predators. There is even a hypothesis that the use of fire to cook food was an important factor in allowing our brains to grow larger during early hominid evolution.
Who doesn’t love the warm glow of an open fire, or toasting marshmallows around a camp fire at night?
Burning wood, oil, coal and natural gas has been an effective bootstrap for our civilisation. The high living standards that we enjoy around the world today are highly associated with fossil fuels transformational ability to liberate energy in the form of heat to do work for us.
However, we now have a major civilisational challenge to solve, caused by our self-harming desire to burn stuff. Burning fossil fuels creates carbon dioxide, which stays in our atmosphere for hundreds of years and warms our climate.
You may remember in 2015, the world signed the Paris agreement. It was signed by 196 nations.
Its overarching goal is to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”
The Paris agreement has been widely criticised for not having any “enforcement teeth” and for not being ambitious enough in its carbon reduction goals. Well, as it turns out, the criticism is well founded.
Just released:
That’s right, the September 2023 global average temperature was 1.8 degrees above pre-industrial. Does the Paris agreement mean anything anymore as its goal recedes into the rearview mirror?
I know the climate deniers will say this is caused by El-Nino and the temperature will come back down again. They are right, this is a temporary new high, and the temperature will most certainly come down again as El-Nino subsides. However, we can be sure that the temperature will be even higher again when the next El-Nino comes along. The long term trend is undeniable and we need to do more.
In 2022, the world released more CO2 than ever before. Let that sink in for a second. Not only are we not reducing our carbon emissions, but we are emitting more than ever. Paris what?
In Elon Musk’s words - “we need to have a maniacal sense of urgency”. I fully agree. The frustrating thing about climate change is that we have the solutions, we just need the political and economic will.
How do we solve it? It’s simple really - electricify everything and build build build renewables and energy storage.
Individually, you may think you’re helpless to solve this problem but you’d be wrong. There are things you can do immediately:
If you have oil, gas, wood, or (heaven forbid) coal heating in your home, switch it out for a heat-pump. Don’t wait, do it now.
If you can afford it, buy an electric car. They are basically at price parity with petrol vehicles now and considerably cheaper over the lifetime of the car when you factor in the fuel savings. What’s more, electric cars are freakin awesome. Once you get one, driving a fossil fueled vehicle will feel like an exercise in self-flaggelation.
If you have influence in your organisation that uses coal or gas for process heat, push as hard as you can for them to stop burning stuff and to start using electricity instead.
Lobby your politicians to simplify infrastructure development. We are going to need alot of renewable electricity to replace our fossil addiction and it’s going to use a lot of land. This will find some resistance, indeed it already has. We need to be mindful and respectful of community needs, but the NIMBYISM needs to stop.
We are going to need more grid. Yes this means more pylons. Similar to the previous point, the extreme NIMBYISM needs to stop.
Be efficient with energy use where you can. Bus and bike if you can, install energy efficient LED lightbulbs etc (it saves you money also).
We are way past time for needing urgent action. Get building and save the world.