Could we stop or reverse global warming without substantially reducing our standard of living

[NoOneMan]

34. The problem with these green promises is people think we have a handle on this

Or that we can get a handle on this. This encourages people to be passive. This perpetuates the myth we do not need to change our habits or our economy.

The reality is that we have a carbon budget to avoid catastrophe of about 565 gigatons of CO2 between now and 2050. At the current rate, we will set the stage for our demise in under 2 decades without factoring in 3-5% growth in emissions.

So, how are we going to take your lifestyle and "green" it, along with billions of clamouring coal-burning third-worlders, while reducing emissions simultaneously (which we still aren't doing)? Everyone in China wants a car too. Can we give them a Prius and all the wonderful green panels to power them? Can we replace a billion cars in the world, make another billion for developing nations, and feasible bring down emissions?

Did you know that it takes 8.8 tons of CO2 to make a hybrid, and another 3.8 tonnes every time you need your battery replaced (in other words, your carbon-saving lifestyle actually increased emissions compared to using an existing conventional automobile). Further, you had to work a job and consume energy to accumulate the capital to purchase these cars. The people building them accumulated wealth, and the economy grew (with tangential multiplying outward), and this correlates to actual higher velocity of energy in the system. And while we pay down this carbon debt with green energy while shutting down coal plants, we export 125 million short tonnes of coal to China to burn in one of the 7 new coal plants them and India build a week.

So, no. Technology isn't magically going to buck its past trend of accelerating the velocity of energy in the system, and its not going to magically cause us to save ourselves before our "carbon budget" is spent. Frankly, it can't. Its too late for it. There are too many people. Those people want to much of the stuff technology gave us. Those people need to build an entire infrastructure to get it. And to those people, they don't mind burning the coal we grow sick of.

So lets get our heads out of the sand and wake up already. Its time to get our ducks in a row and figure out what our priorities are, so we are prepared to meet our fate when the famine comes, grovel for a corporation that will feed us, or build regional resilience that will ensure independence & viability in the face of a catastrophe.