Thread: We've done the climate "worst case" let's look at reality.

This rather long piece by Tom Athanasiou has some excellent points. It's a good idea to read the whole thing first then re-read. In itself that's a reasonable commitment of time and energy - regardless of your views about climate science and/or ecological problems. Everybody Knows: Climate Denialism has peaked. Now what are we going to do? | Planet3.0

(There are 21 references/links but you don't need them desperately to understand what he's getting at unless you've never come across a denialist before. Though I do think #7 is worth a thorough read and a think.)

A couple of tastes. Paragraph 6/7

As bad as the human prospect may be – and it is quite bad – this is not “game over.” We have the technology we need to save ourselves, or most of it in any case; and much of it is ready to go. Moreover, the “clean tech” revolution is going to be disruptive indeed. There will be cascades of innovation, delivering opportunities of all kinds, all around the world. Also, our powers of research and development are strong. Also, and contrary to today’s vogue for austerity and “we’re broke” political posturing, we have the money to rebuild, quickly and on a global scale. Also, we know how to cooperate, at least when we have to. All of which is to say that we still have options. We are not doomed.

But we are in extremely serious danger, and it is too late to pretend otherwise. .....

Further on.

What’s certain is that, all around us, there is a vast potentiality – for reinvention, for resistance, for redistribution, and for renewal of all kinds – and that it could at any time snap into solidity. And into action.

Forget about “hope.” What we need now is intention.

All underlining and bold are my additions.

Intention is the hard part though. Cooperation is not that easy either. Healing the climate will take sacrifices and every one would rather have some one else be the ones doing the sacrificing. Imagin the outcry if we proposed a ban on private cars with greater than a 1000 cc engine. Or banning comercial jet aircraft. Or how about a limit on how many square feet of housing a singel person can occupy?

Healing the climate will take sacrifices and every one would rather have some one else be the ones doing the sacrificing.

The biggest economic sacrifice will be in the suddenly worthless "assets" of mining and power companies who currently hold apparent billions of dollars worth of coal not yet mined and power stations that use that fuel. Much the same process as the similar worthlessness of asbestos mines and factories when we realised we really couldn't afford to use it any more because of it was so terribly dangerous- only on a much larger scale.

For the rest of us? The biggest impact we will feel initially will probably be in food prices - nowhere nearly as dangerous to us as it will be to the poorer regions of the world no matter how much we complain. In rich countries we will, fairly soon, feel the benefits of better built and insulated houses (New Zealand already makes double glazing compulsory on new houses) and cheaper power. Those of us who can take advantage of solar on our rooftops will actually make small profits (funny I say that, I'm already overlooking the net benefit of not paying for most of the power we're using - which actually makes it not such a small profit). And our house already has all LED lights as well as nifty power saver thingies that cut out standby power on tvs and computers. And I always switch off things like the microwave when I'm not using them. I'm pretty certain that items like this will soon come with options to have the display off. How many clocks do we really need?

Smaller houses? Maybe if that's the easiest way to get the better housing standards. The biggest driver for smaller houses will be population. I sneer at my cousin's flat - for want of a better word - in Japan. That's the sort of housing issue we will really be dealing with.

Transport outcomes will be more varied. For most people who use cars the differences between EVs and fossil powered cars will largely disappear. For public transport and heavy haulage there'll be some expensive changes I expect along with a fair amount of redesign of neighbourhoods and shopping arrangements.

The real money will be in the massive amounts of public money needed to relocate ports, sewage processing facilities, airports, roads, bridges and other infrastructure too close to rising seas or flooding rivers.

But most of all, given what they're now facing, I wouldn't be a farmer for quids.