Comment by lazide
5 hours ago
Germany and their out of control energy costs (while still only being at best 1/5 of the way there if you count things like thermal heat), are a good example.
California has a dramatically easier climate, and is similarly struggling - without even taking into account goods shipping/transportation, thermal heat in the less nice climate zones, etc.
California might have a chance of getting to actual net zero without completely breaking the bank. But it’s not obvious it will. Germany is an order of magnitude harder.
Renewable electricity in Germany is already at over 50% per year and climbing steadily, but heating, mobility, land/resource/artificial fertilizer use, pollution and circular economy are still lagging (esp. accounting for the fact we're externalizing some of those by cross-border trade).
I guess we're trying much harder than most, but it's expensive, as you said, and politicians have become very careful to push things further. That said, I do think it's totally feasible in theory, it's just there's a lot of powerful bad actors out there throwing wrenches in the works.
The US has flipped. Forget Net-Zero. It's Net-Positive, how can we get more CO2.
Like the movie The Arrival (1996)
How can we burn more coal, more gas.
Yup, it’s like when someone ‘tries to diet’, can’t handle it anymore, and then goes on a crazy binge.
I figure we’ve got at least a year or two before we start puking all over the place. Maybe less though!
Fun times, eh?