Global warming – simplified summary

OK, here’s a (very) simplified summary of what I’ve learned about global warming after digging deep the past few weeks.

  1. Global warming is a major threat to life as we know it. It’s ALOT worse than most people realize.
  2. Global warming is caused (mostly) by increasing CO2 in the atmosphere.
  3. The CO2 increase comes (mostly) from us burning oil & coal (“fossil fuels”). Adds about 20-30 billion tons of CO2 per year.
  4. So we need to (mostly) stop burning oil & coal.
  5. We burn oil & coal (mostly) for electricity and transport. Coal power plants, car/plane/ship fuel, etc.
  6. We want to keep electricity and transport, but we also want to stop global warming, therefore we need to get electricity and transport without burning oil & coal.
  7. We know how to do that (solar, wind, electric cars, etc). The technology has been figured out, and the prices are at the tipping point where oil & coal can’t compete economically.
  8. So now we just need to hurry up and roll out those solutions! Every single reduced ton of CO2 counts.
  9. Unfortunately shit is going to hit the fan either way (because it’s already launched so to speak), but at least we can slow it down, reduce the impact, and buy us some time.

So pull whatever strings you can to help out – technology, policy, economy, communication, etc. Inform yourselves & each other. People have varying degrees of discretionary time, money, knowledge, voting power, contacts, influence, and motivation. But the more people try to help in one way or another, the more difference it will make as a whole.

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3 responses on “Global warming – simplified summary

  1. Good summary but you didn’t dig enough deeper.
    Global warming is not the only treat that humanity will face off and optimising only CO2 emissions will increase other problems 🙁

    Media only focus on this problem and very few understand that our problem is broader…

    Building solar panel, electric cars, batteries and other high technology will use some rare earth elements in a not sustainable way (we can’t recycle them for a lot of reasons). So we won’t be able to build all the solar panel, cars,…that we need more than few decades (depending on the material).

    We must do what you say but the more efficient is too cut in our energy needs. Build a lot lighter cars with less comfort and high tech and alloys , do not use a lot of useless high tech stuff (oh, look at all these Internet of things that builds connected water bottles,…), reduce a LOT or stop our meat consumption, reduce plane and individual transports as much as possible,…. Just for the most important actions.

    But that’s not the way we are taking…
    When the world will be aware of that, that will already be too late 🙁

  2. Climate Mitigation Engineering: possibly new approach

    Hello,

    I would like to know if anyone is working on using ocean plankton to mitigate Climate Change using Emiliania huxleyi? It is the single biggest source of Oxygen on Earth. Eats Carbon like there is no tomorrow, and at the rate Methane is dissociating in the Artic there may not be one for kids under 12.

    Is it feasible to select and drain appropriate swamps or lakes in the Artic areas and lay pipe or cannels to bring in sea/ocean water? The latitude would of course be important. The plankton may prove to be the most cost effective way to reduce atmospheric Carbon.

    To paraphrase Bill Gates, we need to consider every option.

    Windsor ON CA

    Thanks,
    Jeff

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