Why our continued use of fossil fuels is creating a financial time bomb:
We know roughly how much more carbon dioxide we can put into the atmosphere before we exceed our climate goals—limiting warming to 1.5° to 2° C above pre-industrial temperatures. From that, we can figure out how much more fossil fuel we can burn before we emit that much carbon dioxide. But when you compare those numbers with our known fossil fuel reserves, things get jaw-dropping.
To reach our climate goals, we'll need to leave a third of the oil, half of the natural gas, and nearly all the coal we're aware of sitting in the ground, unused.
Yet we have—and are still building—infrastructure that is predicated on burning far more than that: mines, oil and gas wells, refineries, and the distribution networks that get all those products to market; power plants, cars, trains, boats, and airplanes that use the fuels. If we're to reach our climate goals, some of those things will have to be intentionally shut down and left to sit idle before they can deliver a return on the money they cost to produce.
But it's not just physical capital that will cause problems if we decide to get serious about addressing climate change. We have workers who are trained to use all of the idled hardware, companies that treat the fuel reserves and hardware as an asset on their balance sheets, and various contracts that dictate that the reserves can be exploited.
Collectively, you can think of all of these things as assets—assets that, if we were to get serious about climate change, would see their value drop to zero. At that point, they'd be termed "stranded assets," and their stranding has the potential to unleash economic chaos on the world.
Do you agree with this arguably pessimistic assessment of the situation, and have we already run out of time to take the action necessary to avoid exceeding climate goals? Criticism is easy, but what solutions do you have to the problem?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2022, @01:11PM (6 children)
because greenies took money for Gazprom and done everything in their power to make Europe hostage to Putin.
You should shut your lying maws about your "climate goals", your goal now should be not going to jail for complicity.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Thursday May 12 2022, @03:44PM (5 children)
Oh please, you give the greenies far, far too much credit. As is usual with him, Great Leader Putin does not need help from anyone, he accomplished that all by himself!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2022, @05:21PM (2 children)
You are ascribing godly powers to The Great Leader. Neither the closing down of nuclear power plants in Europe, nor switching to imported coal and gas instead of European sources, could not in this drab Earthy reality be done by one great spell cast from a Kremlin tower. The magic of money requires local hired help, to act through.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2022, @07:12PM (1 child)
I remember Bush junior. He was blamed for hurricanes, droughts, floods, and more. All great leaders have godly powers, don't they?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2022, @09:06PM
I knew of this one guy who could change the course of hurricanes with just a Sharpie marker! It was bigly impressive.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday May 13 2022, @11:52AM (1 child)
I agree - he's such a great man, he doesn't need those tens of thousands of troops, he should go right to the front lines of the Ukraine War and take on all of the Ukrainian forces single-handedly! Why doesn't he do that? He could win easily, I'm sure, that's what strong and tough and manly leaders do. What is he, some kind of coward?
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Friday May 13 2022, @03:41PM
I guess it was just too cold 'til now. You know how much he enjoys running around bare-chested.