The climate change consensus extends beyond climate scientists

[sendler]

We have community solar farms here. They are a way for people to take advantage of the 30% USA rebate and 25% NY State rebate without using your own roof. They quoted me at $2.17/W. Rooftop grid tie solar is installing at $3.30/W so it is not a bad deal. And the local utility allows you to get credit at the very generous "meter runs backwards" up to the amount of your total consumption as settled up every spring. I may give them a couple grand just for fun as a way of tracking what solar can really do in NY with it's 15% average capacity factor.
.
National Grid in NY has also added an EV rebate similar to what california has been doing. So upto $7,500 from USA, $2000 from NY, and $3000 from the electric company. And a new aggressive roll out of smart meters with time of day pricing to avoid adding to the summer cooling peak.
.
But My Honda Fit is still running good and during the summer I am commuting on a CBR250R at 105 mpgUS, so I don't need a new car right now. Or else I would buy a Bolt.
.
So there is some very strong progressive (not free market) pressure to buy an electric car where I live. But my material footprint is still smaller to just keep what I already have for now.

[freebeard]

We could have started in the 1970s, but nooo...

[sendler]

Thank the free market. It's result is to slough along like a world sized amoeba, mindlessly maximizing profit with no wisdom. Just according to where the greatest returns lie. While consuming every available finite resource with almost no price added for the material itself to pay forward the billions of people that won't have any left in the future. Or the waste stream and environmental damage that are resulting.
.
And now we are stuck in a monkey trap of money creation and world debt with no (pain free) way to let go.
.

.

.
.
.

[Xist]

It is difficult to come up with all of the money to pay for astronomically expensive things.

[NeilBlanchard]

Climate change and pollution - are by far - the most expensive things in our future.

The longer we wait to make the switch to 100% renewable energy - and to grow our food without contributing to climate change, and eroding the soil, and using fossil water - the more expensive it will be.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

Climate change and pollution - are by far - the most expensive things in our future.

The longer we wait to make the switch to 100% renewable energy - and to grow our food without contributing to climate change, and eroding the soil, and using fossil water - the more expensive it will be.

That doesn't seem likely. Entitlements seem to be the biggest expense going forward, especially given a slowing population growth, predicted shrinking economy, and $21,000,000,000,000 national debt.

[NeilBlanchard]

The debt is from unfunded tax cuts, and unfunded wars.

Climate change is the single biggest challenge that humans have ever faced - and it is caused by us.

We are causing climate change, and so we can stop doing the things that are causing it.

Facts affect you, no matter what your opinion is. Laws of Nature don't bend.

[sendler]

I believe resource depletion is the biggest challenge humans will ever face. And the debt bubble will collapse before depletion or climate change really start to hurt.

[NeilBlanchard]

We are depleting water by our farming methods.
We are eroding the soil, because we are using artificial fertilizers and herbicides and pesticides.
We are depleting phosphorus, by not returning our waste to the soil.

Also, our farming is contributing to climate change - water soluble nitrogen becomes nitrous oxide - which is a MUCH stronger than methane.

Drought and changes in precipitation are having massive effects on our water supply, already.

Sea level rise has already begun to force people to migrate - as many as 2/3rds of people live near the coast, and will be affected more and more in the coming decades.

We are dumping ... everything into the ocean. We are making the ocean more acidic, and warmer water holds less oxygen - and it will start to release the massive amount of carbon dioxide it has been absorbing. We are causing dead zones with that fertilizer runoff, and we are overfishing on a vast scale.

We may not have ocean fishing in just a few decades.

Crops are becoming less nutritious with increased carbon dioxide.

We are melting glaciers that are the source of water for many people. We have drastically changed the patterns of rainfall. We have changed the jet stream, and the Gulf Stream.

Climate change is already costing us billions each year, and it will accelerate.

We are in the midst of the Sixth Extinction. And it is more rapid than most of the previous five. Insects are down by about 70% in just the past several decades.

What else have you got?

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by sendler

Thank the free market. It's result is to slough along like a world sized amoeba, mindlessly maximizing profit with no wisdom.
.
.
.
And now we are stuck in a monkey trap of money creation and world debt with no (pain free) way to let go.

Very poetical. And all too true.

Debt and entitlements could be disrupted by the technology to grow houses from high-tech 'seeds'.

High-rise hydroponics: 1/10th the water, no soil erosion, nitrogen runoff, etc.

Ship that glacial meltwater to LA?