It really is just super simple, folks
We Can Beat Climate Change If We Do One Thing Fast
Now, finally, much of the world has become convinced, first-hand, that global warming is not only real but heating up more rapidly than we expected, unleashing irreversible impacts. Many people feel despair and helplessness in the face of doomsday predictions already in evidence. And yet, I’m optimistic that we can solve this problem in time to keep our planet livable for future generations.
Otherwise, it’s not livable? It’s a doomsday cult
Squinting at the data, I see a way forward, but the urgency can’t be underestimated. The answer is actually quite simple and requires no miracle technology: we must electrify everything, fast. That means not just the supply-side sources of energy; we’ve got to electrify everything on the demand-side—the things we use in our households and small businesses every day, including cars, furnaces, stoves, water heaters, and dryers. I’m optimistic because over the last two decades the advances and cost reductions in electric vehicles, solar cells, batteries, heat pumps, and induction cooking mean that what we need can now be purchased at roughly price parity with the fossil fuelled incumbent.
But we are not yet at scale. In 2020 only half of the heating systems installed in the U.S. are electric. Only 2% of vehicle purchases were electric. We need a massive, World War Two Arsenal-of-Democracy-style mobilization to get these clean machines manufactured and into our homes and onto our roads. We need a similar effort on the supply side with wind turbines, solar farms, hydroelectric, geothermal and nuclear facilities to make the extra electricity.
Interesting. Most Warmists are 100% against nuclear power. Geothermal is not the best solution for America, and small units can be costly. Hydroelectric dams? Extreme enviros sue to not only stop them, but, to tear down existing ones. They often sue to stop solar and wind farm, along with the transmission lines. Where would we put all this?
And where would we put all the stuff the Government deems Bad? All the old gas stoves, hot water heaters, vehicles, and more?
People who are relying on governments to solve this problem don’t understand the power they have in their own hands and homes to fight global warming.
…in the U.S., 42% of our carbon emissions come from our homes and personal vehicles—our fossil-fuel-burning cars, stoves, heaters, water heaters, clothes dryers, barbecues, and other appliances. It jumps to 65% if we include the small businesses and offices and vehicle fleets of the commercial sector.
Wait, so they’re even going to Ban your gas barbecue? Is this the power the People have, to get government to be dictatorial?
None of this will be easy. In order to meet our climate goals, we will need a 100% adoption rate of electrified technology, starting with our homes. Said another way, we cannot achieve a 1.5 or even 2 degrees warming target unless every household in America is replacing every fossil fuel-burning machine as it is retired with an efficient, electric one within the decade. That doesn’t mean replacing everything in your home at once—which would cost the average homeowner in the U.S. about $70,000. But it does mean that our next car must be electric. Our next stove must be an induction stove (which cooks much more efficiently, with more precise temperature adjustments than a gas stove). Our water and space heaters have to be replaced with heat pumps, a wonderfully efficient technology. In order to make the switch, we will likely have to upgrade our breaker box so it’ll be ready when your water heater goes out and you need a new one tomorrow. This is true for single family homes and multi-family rentals. It is true for new construction. The planet does not care about house size, location or who lives inside. It needs the one billion new machines in our basements, kitchens, utility closets, garages and driveways to be electric, and powered by renewables, in order to heal.
“Must be replaced.” Who says? Why don’t these people mind their own f’ing business. And that doesn’t even account for the cost of an EV, but, then, most people won’t be able to afford one, unless they get a 10+ year loan.
On climate, it turns out that the household is where individual and collective action come together. I’m hopeful that individual property owners will take the concern they’ve spent on recycling, eating less meat, and driving less to make a far more significant impact on our carbon emissions by simply replacing their gas appliances with electric ones. And it is a moral imperative and just economic common sense for Washington to help them do so. It is time for us to all come together and mobilize to achieve the one way forward to save the planet.
Why don’t climate cultists do this on their own? Why is force of government required?
