Saturday, October 25, 2014

On the UK's Goal of Reducing it's Greenhouse Gas Emission by 80% by the Year, 2050

This would necessitate that they reduce their metric tons of carbon dioxide per $1,000 of GDP from .42 to .03 AND accelerate their decarbonization rate (as observed from 1980 to 2008) by upwards of 4-fold. Does anybody with so much as a brain-stem truly believe that this is possible?...THESE ENVIRONMENTALISTS ARE WACKY, PEOPLE!!...........................................................................................P.S. And it also must be stated that the observed decarbonization that did occur occurred primarily due to deindustrialization (which I gather that the Brits do not want more of) and a one-time switch from coal to gas (which will be difficult to replicate and which could only occur via nuclear and/or hydro AND LOTS OF IT). To say that even this level of decarbonization (on into the future) is a given is itself dicey.

4 comments:

Les Carpenter said...

As I always told my people, set your goals high, but not so high as to be unrealistic or unattainable.

Having said this the lofty goal here is worth striving for. And, I highly doubt many expect to acheive it. In this case the progress towards the goal is the important criteria. IMO.

dmarks said...

They'd do better to focus on real, harmful pollutants and emissions instead of the ubiquitous, non-poison CO2 which, sorry, Al Gore, isn't going to cause Florida to sink sometime between now and when CSI airs its final season.

As for "lofty goals", there's a large number of environmental goals/problems (deforestation, biodiversity issues, habitat loss, extinction, oceans, actual pollution) that are much more important and much easier to impact with a smaller effort than the "War On Carbon".

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

An 80% reduction in carbon emissions would put us back to about 1850 and I really don't think that we want to do that even if it was doable and it isn't.

Les Carpenter said...

That's why we need scientist thinking outside the box. The world ain't going to look like it does now in a 100 years so we might as well do something to shape our destiny as best be can. No time like the present to start thinking about it.