A recent Vice.com article points out that cleaner technology is essential if we are to have any long term future, but it’s only one piece of a transition with potential to restructure our planet-ravaging economic system.
The article asks people to think about what the world might look like if we’d all stopped arguing about climate change…
Probably your mental landscape includes more solar panels and wind turbines, highways full of electric cars, energy-efficient buildings, the replacing of dirty fuels with less damaging alternatives. If that’s the case, you could be ignoring a huge part of the solution. Cleaner technology is essential if we are to have any kind of long-term future. But it’s only one piece of a transition with potential to restructure our planet-ravaging economic system and the toxic politics the system has created. Unbeknownst to most people, even those who follow climate change closely, this transition is already underway.
Read on at www.vice.com/en_us/article/3kyp8y/an-optimists-guide-to-solving-climate-change-and-saving-the-world
The article reveals some interesting points about the biggest issues for climate change action…
- More than one third of US carbon emissions come from buildings and transportation
- Expanding access to education for girls living in lower-income countries is number 6 in a list of the 100 most effective solutions to climate change
- Energy from solar is number 8 in that same list – have a look at the other six things that can have more impact…
To those that support the massive solar power station proposal on the basis that it’s vital to solve climate change, we say that it’s just not that simple. This nature-destroying proposal (and the many more that could follow if this gets the go-ahead) will not solve climate change.
The UK Government’s official advisory group – the Committee on Climate Change – said this year that the excellent progress in reducing carbon emissions from generating electricity is masking failure in other sectors.
The UK energy industry is already doing its part, and it doesn’t need to destroy nature in the pursuit of the final 25%.
It’s important to understand that action on climate change needs much more than just the high profile approaches of renewable energy and electric cars.