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Mr. Armstrong asked some very thought provoking questions. Mr. Birol had a great presentation also. I wish he spoke more on the current hydrogen infrastructure we have in place, as that has increased in popularity over the past few months. But overall, a very informative video about the future of global energy. Thank you MIT!
Great presentation - in particular (around 15 minutes in) when you discuss Tacking Emissions from Existing Infrastructure .. Opportunity wise this is not a low hanging fruit -- this is a field of watermelons on the ground ready to be picked. Every single piece of equipment that is now in service can be upgraded in some way to make it more efficient/cleaner/leaner and cost effective. A lot of the "big metal" infrastructure was put in place before "externalities" like emissions, water use, solid waste and other drivers of climate change and environmental degradation were part of the equation. The global installed base has to be remanufactured/repowered/retrofitted and upgraded to current technology and performance standards. This is cheaper than replacing it with new, it avoids "the valley of death" associated with brand new greenfield technology roll-outs (and the permitting process) -- and it makes economic sense. Jobs for upgrades and maintenance are created locally (you can't move these facilities to get upgraded). We need to recognize this opportunity and provide the regulatory and financial incentives to scale up the upgrade and modification efforts so that we can reach the gigaton scales of emissions reductions needed to reach "net zero" anytime in the future.
*Earth is warming at the rate of 5 nuclear bombs per second* Ice is melting at 1 million tons per minute per year 4% of mammals are wild and 68% have been wiped out in 50 years Humans & livestock caused 80% of extinctions, livestock cause 25% of infectious disease Weather = flash floods + flash fires + flash droughts + flash mobs Climate = 30 years of weather + you don't got time to worry about climate 1 million species of plants and animals at risk of extinction ( Nat Geo 2019 ) 97% of great fresh water species gone since 1970 ( Guardian 2019 ) 96% of mammals are livestock and human ( Ecowatch 2018 ) 96% of tigers gone in 100 years ( IFL Science 2019 ) 90% of elephants gone in 100 years ( Hurriet 2019 ) 90% of lions gone in 100 years ( African Impact 2019 ) 90% of Leatherback sea turtles gone since 1980 ( Earth Watch undated ) 90% of Monarch Butterflies gone in 20 years ( Inhabitat 2014 ) 80% of Antarctic Krill gone in 30 years ( Research Gate 2005 ) 77% of Eastern lowland gorillas gone since 1996 ( Treehugger 2020 ) 68% of world’s wildlife has been wiped out since 1970 ( Mongabay 2020 ) 50% of Marine vertebrates gone since 1970 ( WWF 2015 ) 50% of Great Barrier Reef gone since 1985 ( Live Science 2012 ) 40% of Giraffes gone since 1990 ( NRDC 2019 ) 40% less insects in next 30 years ( PNAS 2019 ) 4% of mammals are wildlife ( Vegan News 2020 ) 700 Marine Species Might Go Extinct Because of Plastic ( Green Planet 2019 ) 500 vertebrate species of less than 1,000 individuals ( PNAS 2020 ) 500 species of animal have gone extinct since 1900 ( RD 2019 ) With 23 billion chickens on earth, if one sneezes we all get the flu, covids et al are here to stay Livestock use 80% of antibiotics, cause 50% of animal to human infectious disease, and the age of effective antibiotics is nearly over *Green Energy Sources & Numbers* 2020 : 2% of global energy is solar and wind -- after 20 yrs trying ( IEA stats 2020 ) 2020 : CO2 up 60% in 30 yrs : up 30% in 15 yrs 2030 : 50% of world will be short of water 2040 : 15% of global energy will be renewable 2050 : 28% of global energy will be renewable, at best -- assuming no snags or snafus 2050 : 600 ppm CO2 BAU = 2X safe limit of 300 ppm set by James Hansen In 1992 fossil fuel provided 80% of our energy In 2018 fossil fuel provided 80% of our energy Vaclav Smil says energy transformations take a minimum of 75 years This is because electricity is 20% of global energy use Multiple cascading tipping point collapse starts at 1.5 °C just like dominoes We have to stop burning 50% of fuel in 10 years to stop runaway hothouse mass extinction Runaway hothouse mass extinction cannot be stopped or reversed once started *REAL CLIMATE JUSTICE = 100% PRIVATE GLOBAL CARBON UBI = 0% FOR GOVERNMENTS* Private carbon dividends were first proposed by James Hansen and several economists 10 years ago The key to effective private dividends is a monthly rebate deposit to citizens only Not to corporations or governments, that's why corporations and governments hate it *27 Nobel Prize winning economists* support Hansen's dividends, including: 3,589 U.S. Economists, 4 Former Chairs of the Federal Reserve and ALL 15 Former Chairs of the Council of Economic Advisers He said private monthly dividends would unite left and right to reduce emissions faster than any other way Dams and bio-energy are ecological disaster zones 80% of river life is gone and water proxy dam wars are in Africa and Asia 50% of Euro Nord renewable electricity comes from burning imported trees We can’t burn forests for electricity to save us from the climate We can’t build wildfire suppression big enough to handle future wildfires Forest fires will burn faster than we can plant trees We burn corn, soy and palm oil in cars and will do so until 2030 so far We burn recycled plastic and paper for electricity and call it recycled electricity Plastic harms the plankton that produce 10% of earth's oxygen In the last 20 years, petrochemical demand grew 7X human population growth We don’t have enough land for bio-energy, we're losing soil and water too fast To get 30% of energy from algae would take a country the size of Argentina To get 20% of global energy from solar in 30 years, we need panels 3X faster than now By 2050, there will be 78 million metric tons of solar panel waste, generating 6 million metric tons of new solar panel waste annually. Standard electronics recycling methods don’t cut it for solar panels. ( Wired ) By 2040 not even half of all cars will be electric By 2040 we will have 10% less food, water and habitat if we’re lucky ...hjhhhj
