by Workingman » 13 Nov 2024, 22:25
The problem I have with all this net-zero stuff is that in attempting to solve one problem (CO2) we are creating others - more CO2.
The amount of CO2 expended in the mining and transporting of the materials and the production of things such as EVs, heat pumps, windmills and solar panels. will take decades to recoup.
We needed work to begin (nuclear) decades ago and now we are well behind. In the process we are also destroying pristine environments on land and at sea as well as taking up huge tracts of land for all these wind and solar "farms"
The biggest problems, consumerism and population, are not being addressed. In the past 70 years or so the global population has almost quadrupled from 2.3 billion back then to 8.2 billion today. That's four times more water, food, clothing, housing, transport, education, health care and so on. Unless we tackle those problems we (globally) are wasting our time.
Another thing to consider is that the lead time from cause to effect is decades long. If we stopped emitting CO2 today the parts per million (ppm) in the atmosphere will continue to rise because they are already dormant in the system.