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I feel that isn’t an accurate comparison to climate change in the sense of people denied it yes but we created a vaccine for Covid it would be cool to create one for climate change but I feel that won’t happen obviously
People are actively denying climate change though...
And exactly, there was an "end" to COVID, but there isn't one for climate change
Global carbon emissions are peaking now, or within the next few years. We aren’t out of the woods. But the most likely trajectory with no further policy changes, is 2.5-3C warming by 2100. This is not ideal and will require a lot more adaptation, but nowhere near societal collapse.
- We haven't peaked yet. So, call me when it actually happens.
Oh great, only a casual 3 degrees. I don't know how you're so certain that's no where near societal collapse considering modern humans have never experienced a climate that hot and unstable. We've already lost half of the world's biomass
2.5-3C warming with no new policy improvements. It isn’t 1.5C, but it also isn’t even approaching societal collapse. China installed more solar capacity last year than the US installed in our history. That’s a nicer sounding thing than in practice. They’ll rarely produce anywhere near that capacity, but it is indicative of what can be done, and how fast, if you just put public policy and industrial plant into your climate ambitions.
So, now we’ll need lots and lots of batteries and rare earth elements. Luckily, the Biden admin has dumped billions into the development of that infrastructure so we don’t have to rely on DRC, China or Russia. Is the problem solved today? No. But this is why the United States pours hundreds of billions of dollars into R&D and public universities.
The first commercial salt batteries have started production. I imagine Cali is going to buy a shitload of them because right now they are curtailing (meaning throwing away) a growing number of GW of electricity each spring and are buying very dirty fossil energy from Arizona every night, while not claiming those carbon emissions in their public pronouncements. Salt batteries are cheaper than lithium, heavy, not terribly mobile, but virtually limitless in the source material. I imagine as the tech improves and v.1 becomes v.3 or 4, we’ll see these batteries springing up all over the grid.
And if you’re concerned about biomass, the solution for that is probably lab grown meat and paying off Brazilians to quit cutting down rainforest for cattle grazing. Both of those things are moving forward, more slowly than we’d like but faster than our worst fears.