To Leave Fossil Fuels, Citizens Must Perceive, Believe, Achieve
"It’s Time to Stop Waffling So Much and Say that the Evidence is Pretty Strong…
Multi-meter Sea Level Rise is an Issue for Today’s Public, not Next Millennium’s."
-- James Hansen, July 27, 2015
At the climax of our massive burning of hydrocarbons, and before achieving a beautiful post-fossil-fuel future, we find ourselves now on the horns of a dilemma: We still have enough oil, coal, and natural gas to trigger climate Armageddon. We know we must leave the vast majority of their reserves buried, some 75% and counting, if we are to stop frying the planet and ourselves soon thereafter. To keep our planet habitable means giving up fossil fuels faster than we have adopted them. Nonetheless, our built infrastructure demands their use. Moreover, status-quo inertia and current policy pathways encouraging and subsidizing fossil fuels militate against reductions, much less the dramatic reductions required.
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