Tuesday, November 09, 2010

The Only Question Now - Just How Bad Will It Get

The International Energy Agency warns we can kiss goodbye any hopes of limiting greenhouse gas-driven warming to under 2 degrees Celsius.   The energy arm of the OECD says oil demand will grow steadily over the next 25-years essentially dooming climate change goals.

Even under climate change pledges made under the Copenhagen Accord last year, fossil fuels will still account for more than half the increase in total energy demand, with oil to remain the dominant fuel, the IEA said in its World Energy Outlook report.

The broad failure of the Copenhagen summit on the climate would cost the world $1 trillion in extra investments needed by 2030 to avoid irreparable damage to the climate, raising the total investment needed to $11.6 trillion, the IEA estimated.

...The IEA, the energy monitoring and strategy arm of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, concluded that this " rising demand for fossil fuels would continue to drive up energy-related carbon dioxide emissions through the projection period.

"  Such a trend would make it all but impossible to achieve the two degree C goal..."

It's already becoming widely accepted that the November climate change summit in Cancun will be a failure marked by bickering between China and the U.S.   Meanwhile climate change denialists are leading the pack of Republicans that have captured the House of Representatives killing even the pathetically inadequate measures proposed before the elections.

Well, we're all Easter Islanders now.  It's too bad we won't figure out what that really means for our country and our people while we still have time to implement proper adaptation and remediation measures.   Those are steps you have to take before the problems land on your doorstep.

1 comment:

Eric said...

Perverse, isn't it, that by the time this problem slaps us hard in the face we'll be hopelessly doomed.

It boggles my mind that with 98 doctors telling us we have cancer and need immediate intensive treatment, we listen to the two who tell us to go home and not worry.

I guess it's human nature; I was dimly aware of the problem but didn't pay a ton of attention until a few years ago - which was arguably already too late. But when I had my "oh shit" moment I made big changes in my life - maybe not enough, but hopefully significant.

Maybe that offers a glimmer of hope, if those "oh shit" moments start coming faster for more people, maybe we will still get our act together to save something.

Or maybe we'll just go shopping.