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I was in a seminar today on the situation in Brazil. The Amazon is drying up threatening hydro-generated power. The key strategy is to replace the 80% of electricity generated by hydro with “we have the technology”. That means lots of wind and solar (and add in Biofuel without acknowledging that biofuels burns to CO2.). The problem as we have discussed is that wind and solar make huge demands on energy for mining, manufacturing and distribution.
All climate conversations I am in are moving very slowly. People seem exhausted with it, convinced that they are more or less on the right path, but getting depressed because, obviously, insufficient action is emerging.
If we look at where most people seem to be (my reading, not accurate polling) they seem to cling to themselves into a small number of fairly distinct buckets.
Don’t worry too much, as things get worse incentives for tech solutions will increase and it will work out. Some difficult times but best to just hold on. We have the money and can use the market.
We Must make it work. There is no alternative.
We can replace existing systems with new ones that will be more efficient and cost-effective. The institutions and our way of life will stay the same.
local initiatives will solve the problems with available means.
If we maintain a positive attitude things will work out.
Investment and economic growth are absolutely necessary to get the funds for climate projects.
Investment in tech initiatives that help the lower income people, victims of inequality, and the global south will be the people we should invest in.
No solution is possible without more equality.
Nothing we can do. Collapse is inevitable given no plan and no leadership
It’s all a hoax made by the professional class to get good jobs for themselves and their children.
A few notes. (Please email me if you think I have left some out, or badly misstated. ) doug@dougcarmichael.com
Reliance on investment adds to the current mode of production keeping CO2 producers in place and burning more, not less, fossil -fuel’
= fuels , leading to more CO2 and continuously rising atmospheric temperatures.
Replacing fossil fuels with a new mix of tech is a huge undertaking, with extreme material needs and costs. The earth does not have enough needed materials, from now in process or in the. ground, to replace the existing energy and manufacturing systems.
Many people believe in astrology because it is a sufficient (if incorrect) large systems analysis that feels right to people who then believe in it/ The idea that tech or finance can “solve” climate heating is psychologically like this. It seems like a holistic understanding of a holistic systems problem. Hence proportional to the problems, whereas most climate proposals seem less than proportional, not sufficient in scale, and hence wrong. Since tech plus finance is the largest proposed approach, maybe it is right, many people believe. (or hope). Understanding the relationship among hope, belief, and truth is a promising path for thinking.