EVs will have no effect and neither will wind farms and solar panels. Even recycling plastic is totally useless.
The planet will experience global warming, glacial melting, rising sea levels, and extreme weather events that will cause calamitous suffering to humans and the flora and fauna we depend on.
We differ on what we should be doing now. I believe humans will not go extinct and should keep trying to curtail the use of carbon-based energy.
The only way to survive Climate Change is to remove billions of tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere now. Unless you know of a practical way to do that, we will see 4-8 degrees rise in Global Average Temperature before the end if this century. There is no way humans or much else will or can survive that kind of heat. That’s the reality.
The other reality is that nothing we’re doing as of today is causing a decrease in atmospheric CO2.
Thought experiment:
What about reforestation on a massive (yet manual) scale?
Plus strict population controls.
Plus FDR-scale decarbonization and sustainable agricultural projects - in every country around the globe all at once.
Without using carbon-based energy to power all this projected work.
If you want your ration of Soylent Green (or sustainably produced local food paste), you take the rail or walk to The Project and wield the pick and shovel. Perhaps developing EV based public transport and heavy construction equipment could be prioritized.
Throw in massive, fast-adoption of modern, smaller-scale nuclear power.
And let’s further toss in a dire assumption that 2 billion people die rather quickly.
I know that is pie-in-the-sky and ‘people’ aren’t wired for that. It would require totalitarian + religious levels of control and brainwashing. Would that be able to stave off what is coming, and perhaps get the Lower Emissions Scenario or better?
BTW: I generated about 11 kWh from my 6 panels today (2.1 kWh system, off-grid), and pounded most of that into my EV car. In a few weeks the installers are coming to put a grid-tied 10kWh system on my roof.
Our chance to do this voluntarily and make it our ‘culture’ and the basis of our societies was between 125-150 years ago, with the last gasp about 60 years ago.
One other thought…this article/conversation seems to focus on flooding and coastlines but the effects will be comprehensive. I am sure burning half of Canada’s forests didn’t help CO2 regulation or air quality. The devastation will be everywhere, in every biome.
What no one seems to be mentioning: an increase in vector born pathogens.
Speaking of Slidell . . .
"Severe storms blamed for a death in Mississippi spawned a tornado that demolished buildings in one Louisiana city Wednesday while inundating streets in low-lying New Orleans with hours of steady rain that snarled traffic and strained the city’s antiquated drainage system.
"Severe weather stretched across much of the Gulf South with reports of damage from Texas to the Florida panhandle.
“More than 30,000 homes and businesses were without power Wednesday night in Louisiana’s St. Tammany Parish, where a tornado struck the city of Slidell, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of New Orleans. It ripped roofs off buildings and partially collapsed others in and around the city of about 28,000 people. Authorities said first responders had to rescue people trapped in one heavily damaged apartment building.”