How the fossil fuel industry turned the plan to solve climate change into a plan to save itself
Carbon Removal Technologies | YC Request for Startups
Climate change presents an existential threat to humanity. We are already seeing the effects and they are showing up faster and stronger than anticipated. A report by United Nations' scientific panel on climate change released this month expects the atmosphere-on our current trajectory-to warm up by 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2040. Even the effects of a 0.5 degrees increase will have far-reaching consequences. This research indicates that we are already past the tipping point; even if we significantly reduced emissions, climate change would continue (Source IPCC summary C3 section). We believe there's still time to make a change if we look both to renewal energy and CO2 removal.
Climate change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to Earth's climate. The modern-day rise in global temperatures is driven by human activities, especially fossil fuel burning since the Industrial Revolution. Fossil fuel use, deforestation, and some agricultural and industrial practices release greenhouse gases. These gases absorb some of the heat that the Earth radiates after it warms from sunlight, warming the lower atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere now has roughly 50% more carbon dioxide, the main gas driving global warming, than it did at the end of the pre-industrial era, reaching levels not seen for millions of years.
How to solve climate change and make life more awesome
We already have all the tools we need to fix climate change. We just need to use them.
Social Influence and Action — Jen Christiansen
I’m wary of climate solutions that are hyper focused on the action of individuals as opposed to systems and corporations. Do you experience carbon footprint guilt every time you board a plane to visit family too? Well, that whole schema was a product of the PR firm Ogilvy & Mather for British Petroleum. It was an effort to shift focus away from oil companies and onto individual responsibility to lower greenhouse gas emissions. For more, read “The carbon footprint sham” by Mark Kaufman for Mashable in 2021, and “Big oil coined ‘carbon footprints’ to blame us for their greed. Keep them on the hook” by Rebecca Solnit for The Guardian.
Correcting climate ‘misperceptions’ may not boost climate action - Carbon Brief
Most people "underestimate" general support for climate change and "overestimate" actual, real-world climate action.
The Death of the Carbon Coalition
Existing models of U.S. politics are wrong. Here’s how the system really works.
Why China and Europe should collaborate to ‘defossilize’ the world’s carbon
The world needs non-fossil sources of carbon. It’s a no-brainer for nations working towards this goal to join forces.
China’s Shift to Clean Energy Is Saving the Paris Climate Accord
Beijing’s massive manufacturing investments have driven the costs of clean energy down.
Climate solutions most likely to reach ‘positive tipping points’ revealed by scientists
Global shift towards clean electricity could trigger ‘cascade’ of progress, helping reduce air pollution, cut waste and revive oceans
Carbon Tariffs 101
We evaluate the economic and environmental consequences of taxes on imported goods based on their carbon content. The analysis uses the simplest possible partial equilibrium framework, with one small open economy and a global pollution externality. It relies on graphs of supply and demand, rather than equations or formulas, hoping to reach readers familiar with basic economics. Despite its simplicity, the framework imparts numerous lessons. (1) Absent a domestic price on carbon, a carbon tariff imposes the same costs on domestic consumers as a domestic carbon price, but a carbon tariff also subsidizes domestic pollution. (2) If one small country imposes a carbon tariff, with or without a domestic carbon tax, the economic incidence of the tariff falls on its consumers. (3) If a holdout country joins the rest of the world by enacting its own carbon regulation and consequently imports more from other countries, those increased imports are not “leakage.” They are the cessation of leakage from when the holdout country’s policy was lax. And (4) if other countries do not appropriately regulate emissions, no single small country can use a combination of carbon taxes and carbon tariffs to fully correct the problem caused by its consumers or producers.
Why unilateral decarbonisation can pay for itself
Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are rapidly warming our planet, with potentially severe economic, social, and health consequences. Conventional estimates of climate damages suggest that while coordinated global efforts are desirable, unilateral action is rarely cost-effective due to a classic free-rider problem. Why should a country bear the costs of reducing emissions when the benefits are shared globally? This column re-evaluates this view in light of new climate damage estimates based on global temperature variation, showing that the economic case for unilateral decarbonisation is far stronger than previously thought.
In Deep
The numbers are simply mind-blowing: up to £264 billion for a climate “solution” that will increase emissions. Has the government lost its mind?
Green economic planning for rapid decarbonisation
Sustainable futures require deep social and economic transformations to address climate change adequately. The current landscape of intergovernmental and market-based coordination is not delivering...
The story of CO2 is the story of everything: how carbon dioxide made our world
"How carbon dioxide, the world's most important substance, shaped the planet's past and present-and holds the key to our future Carbon dioxide: this seemingly simple and ubiquitous substance is fundamental to how our planet works. All life is made from CO2, and its behavior on this planet has kept Earth bizarrely habitable for hundreds of millions of years. In its workings lie both the splendor of our world and the potential for life's destruction. In short, it is the most important substance in history. But why is CO2 as essential to life on Earth as it is capable of destroying it? In The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything, award-winning science journalist Peter Brannen reveals carbon dioxide's fundamental role in the operation and maintenance of our planet. Starting at the beginning of time and working all the way up to our present reality, he illuminates how CO2 has been responsible for the planet's many deaths and rebirths, the evolution of life, and the development of modern human society. Carbon dioxide's movement through rocks, air, oceans, and life has kept our planet's climate livable, its air breathable, and its oceans hospitable to complex life for more than five hundred million years. And only by understanding CO2 in the context of deep Earth history can we see how it gave rise to today's industrial economy-and more clearly recognize what it means to be churning through hundreds of millions of years of old life in the form of fossil fuels and converting it all to carbon dioxide. With groundbreaking research and a clear-eyed perspective, Brannen shows how a deep exploration into the mechanics of the carbon cycle and the history of our planet can provide hope for averting environmental catastrophe in the future. It all starts with a richer understanding of the essential role of one substance"--
Self-Burn
Thanks to Trump, people around the world are scrambling to get out of fossil fuels.
Sasha Luccioni, PhD 🦋🌎✨🤗 on Twitter / X
Man, this preprint is really the gift that keeps on giving.In case people missed my previous PSA : you can't compare the carbon emissions of people and objects. Humans are more than just the work that they do. (Also, that paper makes a lot of false assumptions in general) https://t.co/bZA414J9YI— Sasha Luccioni, PhD 🦋🌎✨🤗 (@SashaMTL) September 19, 2023