We can solve global climate change.
When humans all work together we can make change at a global scale.
The cost of climate change is increasing. And the longer we wait the more expensive it will be to fix. We need to start taking global climate change seriously, which for the most part means putting serious money behind it.
But how do we fix global climate change? Unfortunately there is not one easy answer. Instead there are many solutions, some more effective than others. It is going to take a combination of things to solve global climate change.
In this article I will group know solutions into buckets of effectiveness.
Breakdown of human CO2 emissions (source):
50% stays in the air
25% is absorbed by the oceans
25% is processed by plant life
So we are producing twice as much CO2 as nature is processing. This means we can either half our emissions, triple the amount of plants or do a combination of both.
Although I definitely think a combination is a good idea. Tripling the amount of plant life is far more challenging than halving our emissions, so generally things that reduce our emissions are going to be more effective.
Most Effective Solutions (in rough order of impact):
1. A carbon tax
This is a tax added to products and services based on their carbon footprint. This tax should take into account the manufacturing cost, the distribution cost and its expected lifetime use. This tax will achieve three main things:
a. Incentivize consumers to buy products with lower carbon footprints
b. Incentivize companies to produce products with a lower carbon footprint
c. Raise money to pay for everything else on this list :)
One of the really nice things about a carbon tax is that it has a global impact, even if the carbon tax isn’t global. This is because it is paid by the consumer at market. If a company wants to reach a market that has a carbon tax it is forced to consider its carbon footprint.
2. Investment in renewable energy and storage
Solar, wind and other forms of renewable energy (I include nuclear) need to be purchased en masse. It isn’t enough to wait for energy companies and large energy consumers to drive this. The clean power grid will require a large amount of capital and needs to be done at a country scale. Energy storage is a large part of this. Most forms of renewable energy do not produce constant power. See turning the Hoover Dam into a battery.
3. Carbon capture
Carbon capture is a technique of capturing and storing the CO2 produced during manufacturing. A carbon tax will help incentivize companies to do this but it will likely not be enough. Additional tax credits should be given to companies who are capturing their greenhouse gases. The biggest challenge is what to do with all the CO2. There are a few proposals but most of the leading proposals may have undesired side effects. This is something that any comprehensive climate control plan needs to address.
Part of why carbon capture is so important is that CO2, despite all of the problems it causes, is only 1 part in 4 million in our air. So once it disperses it becomes much, much harder to collect it.
4. Direct air capture
It isn’t enough to just stop polluting, we need to reverse the damage we have done. We need to remove CO2 from the air. And we know how to do this. The challenge is that, because CO2 is at a very low concentration in our air, we need to process a lot of air for this to be effective. This requires a lot of energy, and if this energy isn’t clean the whole effort isn’t worth it. This also needs to be at a country scale.
Plants, the ground and water already take carbon out of the air. So why build a machine? These natural removers of CO2 are not currently keeping up with our production. And these CO2 removers are not space efficient, making them less effective than a man made air cleaner.
resources:
Ted talk on this
Carbon engineering, machine will do the equivalent of 40 million trees
5. Invest in nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion is coming. Cheap, infinite energy. We need to invest in speeding this along. With nuclear fusion it starts to become feasible to not only clean the air but split CO2 into carbon and oxygen. These elements on their own are quite useful. I wrote about nuclear fusion in the past here.
Part of why this isn’t higher on the list is the timeline. If we were closer than we are this would pretty much solve the issue but we can’t afford to do nothing while we wait for fusion to save the day.
If we can do these 5 things we will solve global climate change. We need to invest in our futures now. And we need to stop worrying about our neighbors. Every country has a moral obligation to act towards solving this problem. Other countries not doing their part does not remove our own obligations.
Less Effective Solutions (in rough order of impact):
6. Cap and trade
Limit the amount of carbon companies are allowed to emit and allow them to buy and sell carbon credits with each other. This creates a free market which gives companies incentives to reduce their CO2 emissions. Although I like the idea of cap and trade I think it is much less effective than a carbon tax. For these reasons:
- The cap has to be carefully managed and reduced overtime
- It doesn’t create a race to as little emissions as possible it creates a race to a bit below the cap
- Bad players can continue bad behavior by buying carbon credits
- It doesn’t raise any revenue (unless the government sells the carbon credits)
- This doesn’t account for consumer usage or upstream foreign companies
Ultimately I think companies should be held accountable for the damage they do. A carbon tax does a much better job at doing this. Of course it should be noted that cap and trade and a carbon tax can exist side by side.
— more coming soon