Cheap and abundant clean energy, if we ever figure it out, solves a huge number of humanity's problems. Most of us aren't advocating fewer children, or even less energy consumption, we're arguing for reducing emissions so that we can consume more energy, and thus advance our civilization, without simultaneously destroying the place that civilization lives. Fossil fuels were a devil's bargain right from the start.
Sol,
Usually when I read your posts - I find myself nodding in agreement and thinking, "Holy shit - he's summing up the issue succinctly and more powerfully than I ever have."
This time is different. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but you seem to be saying we needn't worry about energy conservation at all. You seem to be saying we needn't have tough conversations with all the cheap-energy junkies. We needn't lead by example, and tell those around us to curb their habits. Because, by your logic, even though we don't have clean energy solution yet, we hope to at some point in the future.
This feels an awful lot like advocating that people max out their high interest credit cards, even though their current income streams won't allow them to pay the full tab at the end of the month. They can simply hope to come up with a way to make more money before the bill is due ("
if we ever figure it out"). In the meantime, embrace profligate spending / energy consumption!
It's madness.
At this point, we need to develop clean, reliable energy sources. Yes. We need technology that can scrub CO2 and CH4 out of the air. Yes. All of the above. But these technologies don't exist yet at adequate scales to meet current consumption. Until we have those technologies, I think we have to have tough conversations and curb energy consumption where ever we can. No, we needn't revert to the stone age, but we do need to conserve.
I may be wrong, but from what I can tell, it seems the survival of our species may depend on us doing everything we can to stop AGW. And the thing is, cutting down energy consumption - by every single person in the 1st world- would be an effective contribution to that effort.
Besides, cutting down energy is in line with much of the stoicism advised in this blog. It includes finding those areas in your life where making a small change can make a difference in how much fossil fuel energy you demand. You could cut out dairy altogether, and reduce meat consumption to 1x per week (both of which have more benefits than just cutting down on energy). You could bike to the grocery store. You could turn down the heat. Etc.
One single person's effort won't do much. But everyone doing as much as they can? Shit yeah. That could make a difference.
Some here have said that energy conservation is not 'the solution' but merely a way of 'buying time'. Yeah, that's one way to look at it. But buying time might be exactly what we need. Global warming is a complicated issue, and while we pursue the silver bullet solutions that Sol has outlined, we all could be doing our part to reduce our energy consumption, and hopefully, stave off AGW.
Like I mentioned before, one thing that's truly terrifying to me is how resistant people can be to the idea of conserving energy on an individual level - especially those people who seem to grasp the full implications of AGW. It's one thing for people like my dad, who to this day regurgitates denialist talking points under the guise of being a serious 'skeptic.' He regurgitates asinine talking points on just about every topic, so that's to be expected. But for people who understand that 2degC may be the tipping point of no return, well, for them to not be fighting for all of us to reduce our energy consumption. It fucking terrifies me.
I may be wrong. I hope I am. But for people in this thread, on this blog - of all places - to be saying we don't have to worry about reducing our energy consumption? Like I said, it freaks me out man.
