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Climate warming solutions

Posted by Broadlands on 22 Dec 2022 at 18:27 GMT

Actionable solutions include (1) rapid reductions in CO2 emissions.(2) achieving net-zero emissions.
No. 1 is not possible without serious damage to all economies by the loss of the fuels required to continue the transition to renewables and electric transportation. Conventional vehicles are required. They run on fossil fuels.

No. 2 is possible, but not at any level that could possibly affect the climate. Net zero, by definition, requires taking out as much CO2 as has been put in. Last year global emissions amounted to about 40 billion tons. Five tons for all eight billion people on the planet. Clearly out of range. Industrial carbon capture and storage technologies are unable to store enough CO2 to matter to the climate. The IEA estimates that 7,600 million tons would be needed by 2050. But, that's not even one part-per-million (7,800 million).

None of these problems with actionable solutions appear in textbooks. And they should be part of the conversation to students.

No competing interests declared.