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We've Already Built too Many Power Plants and Cars to Prevent 1.5 °C of Warming:
In a [...] paper published in Nature today[*], researchers found we're now likely to sail well past 1.5 ˚C of warming, the aspirational limit set by the Paris climate accords, even if we don't build a single additional power plant, factory, vehicle, or home appliance. Moreover, if these components of the existing energy system operate for as long as they have historically, and we build all the new power facilities already planned, they'll emit about two thirds of the carbon dioxide necessary to crank up global temperatures by 2 ˚C.
If fractions of a degree don't sound that dramatic, consider that 1.5 ˚C of warming could already be enough to expose 14% of the global population to bouts of severe heat, melt nearly 2 million square miles (5 million square kilometers) of Arctic permafrost, and destroy more than 70% of the world's coral reefs. The hop from there to 2 ˚C may subject nearly three times as many people to heat waves, thaw nearly 40% more permafrost, and all but wipe out coral reefs, among other devastating effects, research finds.
The basic conclusion here is, in some ways, striking. We've already built a system that will propel the planet into the dangerous terrain that scientists have warned for decades we must avoid. This means that building lots of renewables and adding lots of green jobs, the focus of much of the policy debate over climate, isn't going to get the job done.
We now have to ask a much harder societal question: How do we begin forcing major and expensive portions of existing energy infrastructure to shut down years, if not decades, before the end of its useful economic life?
Power plants can cost billions of dollars and operate for half a century. Yet the study notes that the average age of coal plants in China and India—two of the major drivers of the increase in "committed emissions" since the earlier paper—is about 11 and 12 years, respectively.
[*] Monday.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Entropy on Wednesday July 03 2019, @03:06PM (6 children)
AOC says the world will end in a few more years..gotta do "carbon credits" now, even though those are completely stupid.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday July 03 2019, @04:12PM (2 children)
Nah, the End is Nigh crowd are all in Trump's camp. It's like they want the world to end.
And certainly if the Rapture is coming soon, then it doesn't matter how much CO2 we dump into the atmosphere, God will end it all before that becomes a serious problem. Society doesn't need personal responsibility. Just leave it all to God.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday July 03 2019, @08:33PM (1 child)
But it will come as a surprise to them when God puts them all into hell. After all, by dumping so much carbon dioxide into the air, they asked for being in a hot place, right?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday July 03 2019, @11:21PM
A fair point. However, it is a matter of some debate in the scientific community as to which may be hotter [lockhaven.edu], heaven or hell.
As such, if god (or whatever you want to call your imaginary sky daddy) were to put folks in hell, he might be doing them a favor, as it may well be cooler there than in heaven.
While completely useless, it's an interesting thought experiment, similar to that described by Stanislaw Lem in The Cyberiad [wikipedia.org]:
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday July 03 2019, @05:36PM
Ooh, Fox's favorite boogey-woman AOC: Fear
Scare quotes around carbon credits: Uncertainty
Those are completely stupid: Doubt
Who's the FUDder again?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 03 2019, @08:00PM (1 child)
Triggered While Males
Would be funny if it weren't for ALL of humanity's problems being denied by them. Oh, except the least important "problems" like homosexuality and abortion. Fookin dipshits.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 04 2019, @12:30AM
It's all that fookin XML.