GOOD! Half the World Renewable Powered by 2050 BAD! By Then, We’re Cooked!
So your pal walks up and says, “The good news is, I’ve found a job for you that will allow you complete happiness, untold wealth and travel, and security for your family.” You say, “Hey, that’s fuckin’ great!” and then chastise yourself, mentally, for cursing. But your friend isn’t done. He looks at his feet, winces a bit in that funny way some people do when they wince using only their lips (I have some friends who are lip-wincers so I know of what I speak) and says, “The bad news is, you’re going to be dead in a week.” That’s pretty much the kind of situation this article reminds me of.
The article seems so darned hopeful, reporting that “clean energies could surge to supply half of world demand by 2050 if governments crack down on use of fossil fuels.”
First of all, that’s a might big if. The odds of governments cracking down in earnest on fossil fuels seems quite slim, at least here in the U.S., until such a time comes that the public really demands this. At present, there is little such demand, at least judging by the rhetoric of 2008 presidential hopefuls - they clearly aren’t feeling the pressure to aggresively tackle environmental issues.
Second, by 2050 it will be far too late. If you read this blog, you know I keep harping about how we need to act NOW and not five years from now, and even then it may well be too late. The damage has been done. There aint nothing we can reverse. The glaciers are melting, the sea levels are rising, the fresh water is disappearing, and it’s all going to get a lot worse really, really fast. By 2050 . . . the world as we know it will be quite a different beast. Seems impossible, doesn’t it? We see ads for the 2008 Prius, the new iPhone, all the gadgets that make the world go down. I mean ’round. Business as usual. In as little as ten years, we’re going to look back at 2007 and wonder ‘Why the hell weren’t we scared?’
On a lighter note: HELIUM.
Tags: environment, news, Politics, Ruminations