Obama on fossil fuels;

[pscot]

This is a quote taken from an interview with Tom Friedman. Gradualism on Ambien.

“We’re not going to be able to burn it all. Over the course of the next several decades, we’re going to have to build a ramp from how we currently use energy to where we need to use energy. And we’re not going to suddenly turn off a switch and suddenly we’re no longer using fossil fuels, but we have to use this time wisely, so that you have a tapering off of fossil fuels replaced by clean energy sources that are not releasing carbon. ... But I very much believe in keeping that 2 [degree] Celsius target as a goal.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/opinion/sunday/friedman-obama-on-obama-on-climate.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0

[SkatmanRoth]

1. I am afraid ramping down off fossil fuels will not work

With a combination of big energy companies, energy inefficient manufacturing, and the big banks looking at nothing but making a profit, it would take far too long to end the use of fossil fuels. In fact, industry would stop using fossil fuels about the same time that they could not economically produce any more of them. Climate change is far too important to let for-profit business make the changes on their own.

What is needed is for large step changes to occur forcing business onto the correct path. The world will not move to renewables unless the burning of coal and oil is restricted sharply in large downward steps. The transition to wind and solar will be quick (but not painless) when the Government mandates 30 percent reduction of coal in one year followed by a 30 percent reduction in oil two years later. When the mandates exceed more than half the use fossil fuels, renewables will become the energy of choice. Fossil fuels will simply fade from the scene.

[pscot]

2. Where there is no vision

the people perish.

[SkatmanRoth]

3. No vision? or are we blinded by thurst for more and more profit?

The cost of energy exceeds the price we pay for it. We have known for over twenty years that using the atmosphere as a sewer for carbon pollution was a hidden cost of energy production. This cost manifests itself as a retention of heat due to the increase in CO2. A whole generation of people have come to adulthood knowing that carbon pollution is going to have dire effects on the whole human race, but no attempt at a comprehensive solution has even been attempted.

The only vision offered is the one from the extraction industries, supported by energy intensive manufacturing, and cheered on by the financial intuitions. BP, Boeing, and Barclays claim global warming can be controlled by new technology, Cap and Trade, and taxes. No other plan is allowed to be considered. All this does is allow the corporations in the extraction business aligned with the corporation that control the means of production along with the banks that control the financial process to continue operations as usual while generating even more profit.

Our last chance to put the brakes on this suicidal path we are on is to use the power of Government to curtail the unrestricted burning of fossil fuel. We the citizens have to elect representatives to mandate a dramatic reduction in consumption. Cut coal use by 30%. Tell the electric power generators that the market is still there; find another way to make electricity. They will find a way. Two years later cut oil use by 30 percent. Tell the transportation industry the market is still there; find another way to run cars without gasoline. They will find a way.

When the capitalists are put into the position of solutions being more important than profits, they will find solutions with amazing speed. The vision will grow out of the need. It is up to our government to put that need on the capitalists.