Lost opportunity: We could've started fighting climate change in 1971
arstechnica.com
arstechnica.com
The wording kind of implies we are fighting it now. Rather than just early skirmishes, or whatever this is.
Also implies that no one was doing anything at all.
It actually is kind of hard to make any progress fighting, especially single-handedly.
I was just a teenager but at least I resolved not to contribute more than a small fraction to the problem compared to average consumers.
Over a number of decades this has added up to conserving what amounts to more than a few lifetimes worth of waste.
Committing to a lifetime of alternative energy research was also a no-brainer for me.
I don't have my whole life ahead of me any more, but if I can deploy some nice bits of 20th century progress it would be worth more than the money I earned along the line improving my abilities. And the 21st century was potentially more advanced.
Interestingly, ERE was one of my employer's clients back in 1980 when I was pushing the state-of-the-art in CO2 gas analysis using early microprocessor-controlled instrumentation.
The rich and powerful (kings and royalty in the past, oligarchs, politicians and CEOs now) have always tried to entrench themselves in their castles, passing laws to crash dissent, etc. It never worked.
Too bad this time, before the masses wake up and raise their fists, the planet will be trashed to oblivion, for the mass is misinformed, disinterested, out of shape, and very very misguided (antivaxers, chemtrails, and who knows what bs else). Still, when there is no food in the stores, and no work (taken by AI or cheaper labor from abroad), and the water and air give you cancer, they are bound to wake up and rage.
And how did that go in the Russian/Chinese cases? You end up with a new ruling class, often more ruthless than the previous, because instead of inheriting the power, they are the sort who dared to take it and are willing to hold on to it at any cost. Same shit, different asshole.
While we're doing that, we could end bullshit jobs working for nonsense goals as well.
Also we're inheriting the infrastructure that has nonsustainability baked in and is not easy to roll back. E.g. the US with it's massive car dependence has its work cut out for it.
Some grandfathering has to happen or pricing in externalities will be too brutal and end the system that could enforce it.
I think that very much USED to be true but is now definitely NOT the case.
We can make the switch to complete renewables, or at least make a 90+% reduction in GHG intensity. Not quickly and not without short term cost but it is finally possible without bankrupting us. At this point we are fighting inertia and monied interests who would prefer the energy status quo. Hydrocarbon energy is wildly profitable and very convenient but we shouldn't act like it's the only game in town any more.