A talking head on national news relayed concern that John Holden expressed about climate change. Quite remarkable given the prevalent silence on the topic in the past. Pity, it’s too late.
WASHINGTON (AP) – The president’s new science adviser said Wednesday that global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing radical technologies
“Like stopping coal?”
Well, no-o-o-o-o, nothing quite that radical.
It would seem that Holden is among the technology school of thought, i.e., once we fail we can “geo-engineer” our way out or find another planet.
As I commented to a frequent contributor to Treehugger, “Good luck, John. Technology blindly in the service of profit is just another way of saying Business As Usual And Above All Else.” Also, I referenced a recent post by Alex Steffen, entitled “Save the Holocene“.
While some of the more overt denial is becoming a bit embarassing for mainstream media, e.g., the Washington Post satisfying it advertisers by publishing George Will, unfortunately, there is still quite a bit of sophisticated delay afoot.
John Holdren told The Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month that the idea of geoengineering the climate is being discussed. One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays. Holdren said such an experimental measure would only be used as a last resort.
“It’s got to be looked at,” he said. “We don’t have the luxury of taking any approach off the table.”
Professor Romm just updated an earlier post on the breakthrough myth. Good timing, Joe!
His earlier post stimulated considerable discussion, some of it well worth scanning. Bottom line is that deployment is much more critical at this juncture than research.
As one wit put it, “As it was sinking, I wonder if the Titanic victims considered building more life boats.” Heck, the iceberg which met with the great technological achievement that was the Titanic… Shoo, it was a lot smaller than the piece of the Wilkins ice shelf that just broke off.
“Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the U.S. should invest in technology to reduce the carbon produced by burning coal, but he said it will take at least eight years to be sure such systems work.”
And, it was white. I imagine the current hazard to be as black as coal, or tar sands, or crude oil. Hurtling towards our endpoint, densely populated by lobbyists and other less than human things that continue to drone, “Renewable energy is useless.”
Related CP Posts:
- Breaking the technology breakthrough myth
- Do we need a massive government program to generate breakthroughs to make solar energy cost-competitive?
- The decarbonization story and why a carbon price beats technology breakthroughs
- Nick Kristof drinks the tech-breakthrough Kool-Aid
- The Extreme (plug in) Hybrid — no breakthrough needed!
- Bush climate speech follows Luntz playbook: “Technology, technology, blah, blah, blah.”
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{Commercial Break} Yes, ‘Merika, you were looking for “A Cheaper Way to Draw Oil from Shale” and now you can have it.
In a Guardian poll “almost nine out of 10 climate scientists do not believe political efforts to restrict global warming to 2C will succeed.”
Translation for the climate science challenged, life on Planet Earth as we know it is basically farked.
NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) scientists say it is possbile that the threat of global warming still could be greatly diminished if nations were to cut emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases by 70 percent within this century.
“While global temperatures would rise, the most dangerous potential aspects of climate change,” e.g., massive losses of Arctic sea ice and permafrost (with a consequent release of methane due to the latter), could be partially avoided. Thus, according to this new analysis, the world still can prevent a significant sea level rise.
“If the world were to implement this level of emission cuts, we could stabilize the threat of climate change and avoid catastrophe,” says NCAR scientist Warren Washington, the lead author of the newly published study.
Of course, this means we are totally farked, since it is “The World’s” responsibility, rather than the responsibility of operators of coal plants and petroleum refineries.
Another reason that we are totally farked: the process is already underway. The research indicates that significant warming will occur during this century, no matter what is done. Thus, we will reach or come closer to further tipping points. By the time enough of “The World” is convinced that we farked up, it already will be far, far too late. Due to a lack of resolve by members of “The World”, of nations, of whatever social abstraction you choose to use to avoid facing the truth, we will have passed the very short window to make a difference that we now have. It may have been because we were too cheap, too selfish, too greedy, too stupid, or just plain too crazy. Those reasons will matter not to the Life on the Planet that we have, for whatever reason, condemned.
EOT (End Of Transmission)
The Naib has been having fun with maps.
Humans seem Hell Bent on committing Eco Suicide; Fred Branfman says there still is Hope.
Green Inc., a blog about energy, the environment and the bottom line, reports that the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) “would require the nation’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases to start tracking their emission levels on Jan. 1 and report them to the government.”