Forecasting the Future of Global Warming
There was a recent article in the New York Times about the record levels of carbon in the atmosphere. This raises lots of thoughts in my mind and I wanted to get them down in writing. Unstoppable Growth in Carbon My first thought is this is unstoppable. Carbon in the air will continue to increase. The reason is not just powerful oil and coal lobbies. It is the Rest of the World. Even if the US gets as aggressive as progressive countries like Germany , it will not make a dent in the global carbon generation. The US only uses 18% of global energy and the growth is coming from elsewhere. Economy Tops Morality The growth is bound to continue since economic growth is the key to power (pun intended) structures in the world. Failing economies elect new leaders (or overthrow old ones). So asking a country to cut back on cheap energy is a tough one. And of course private industry is of course simply interested in the least expensive alternative, which is carbon fuels. Wh