How's That "50 by 30" Thing Going?


The International Energy Agency reports that CO2 emissions climbed a hefty six percent last year. The culprit? Energy prices.

Higher costs for fossil fuels, especially natural gas, are said to have driven consumers back to coal.

I don't want to harp but it's a terrible result. Barely a week ago the IPCC released another report, truly dire, about the possible collapse of human civilization. It's gotten to the point where some of the contributing scientists are talking about quitting because, after 26 years, these reports, these warnings aren't working. What's the point?

We're living in an era that in some ways reminds me of an episode of the Twilight Zone. I can almost hear Rod Serling's voice. Remember that episode with Shatner as a passenger on an airliner who can see a gremlin outside tearing the wing apart?  No one else can see it. Everyone thinks Shatner is mad. It's something like that except we can all see the gremlin, we can all hear the warnings. We just don't want to do anything.

We can see the gremlin at work. It's in the wildfires that grow in destruction year by year. We can see it in the "heat domes" that brought a new level of misery to British Columbia last summer, even erasing a small town in one day.  We saw it in massive floods in November that swept away every rail and highway link connecting British Columbia to the rest of Canada. We see it in so many ways but we don't want to think about it.

Are we resigned to it? The safe bet would be "yes." So be it but, if that's the case, let's be honest about it.  At that point it becomes an individual problem, every man for himself, because the collective response is no longer the default option. 


Comments

  1. LorneMarch 8, 2022 at 1:27 PM

    Already I have heard cries for more oil production to counter the high gas prices owing to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. With that kind of a response, I would agree that as a species we are indeed resigned to the destruction of our planet, Mound.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Northern PoVMarch 9, 2022 at 2:36 PM

      Mambo # 1 Our fossil-fuels are better than theirs.
      Mambo # 2 Increase our war spending.

      Delete
    2. The Disaffected LibMarch 10, 2022 at 11:09 AM

      I'll be posting a JuiceMedia podcast featuring two climate scientists, one of them from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL, James Hansen's former post. They lament that the Russian invasion of Ukraine obliterated the IPCC's most recent and most dire synthesis report, ensuring it will achieve zero political traction.

      These scientists stress that the '50 by 30' target isn't aspirational nonsense that can be sloughed off. We really are up against it and, when we ought to be on a clear plan to slash emissions every year, we're going in the opposite direction.

      We're out of time. That's hard to accept, hard to believe, mind-boggling. British Columbia got a taste of the lash in 2021 - wildfires, heat domes, massive floods and all the associated, massively costly, destruction. In the interviews these scientists stress the point that we're not going back to what most of us perceive as "normal."

      Delete
    3. Northern PoVMarch 10, 2022 at 11:31 AM

      gallows humour ....

      "A Sydney man has set an ambitious target to phase out his alcohol consumption within the next 29 years, as part of an impressive plan to improve his health.

      The program will see Greg Taylor, 73, continue to drink as normal for the foreseeable future, before reducing consumption in 2049 when he turns 101. He has assured friends it will not affect his drinking plans in the short or medium term.
      Taylor said it was important not to rush the switch to non-alcoholic beverages. “It’s not realistic to transition to zero alcohol overnight. This requires a steady, phased approach where nothing changes for at least two decades,” he said, adding that he may need to make additional investments in beer consumption in the short term, to make sure no night out is worse off.

      Taylor will also be able to bring forward drinking credits earned from the days he hasn’t drunk over the past forty years, meaning the actual end date for consumption may actually be 2060.

      To assist with the transition, Taylor has bought a second beer fridge which he describes as the ‘capture and storage’ method."

      https://www.theshovel.com.au/2021/10/26/man-announces-he-will-quit-drinking-by-2050/

      Delete
    4. The Disaffected LibMarch 12, 2022 at 3:12 AM

      Awesome, NPoV.

      Delete

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