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The surplus got spent to ensure Western man couldn’t escape his parasites.
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Explain to me like I'm five.
Vaclav Smil —
AMA [Ask Me Anything] — Could technology reverse the effects of climate change? I am Vaclav Smil, and I’ve written 40 books and nearly 500 papers about the future of energy and the environment. Ask Me Anything!
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Civilization of 7.5 billion people existentially dependent on burning some 10 billion tonnes of carbon every year cannot make a rapid turnaround: the scale and the embedded nature of this dependence means that moving away from fossil fuels will be a prolonged process. Remember: despite all the investment in renewables since 1990 there has not been the slightest REDUCTION in carbon emissions globally, with new records set every year. This means that in the net terms the transitions has NOT even started!
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If you can peel off an off-world economy and let it evolve independently, then it need not drag down the transition.