First thing's first -- we need to start building a bunch of nuclear power plants, and shutter the coal-fired ones as soon as possible. Emissions from coal-fired electricity generation account for the largest share of U.S. greenhouse gases, 38.9% of U.S. production of carbon dioxide in 2006 (with transportation emissions close behind, at 31%).Originally Posted by Oswald Bastable
Once we've got that squared away, we impose a modest carbon tax, and offer tax incentives (if not subsidies) for manufacturers of alternative-energy cars. (Hydrogen/fuel-cell/electric, it doesn't matter). Ultimately, the only vehicles that should still be using gas on our roads are diesel trucks.
Doing the above alone would greatly reduce global emissions, as the U.S. alone accounts for 19% of all emissions (as of 2008). But the biggest global polluter is, of course, China. Getting them on-board is going to be a tougher sale, but they contribute 23% (as of 2008) of global emissions, so their cooperation would most helpful. With a little bit of leadership on our part, most of their leaders realize how serious a problem it is as well, and once the see us take serious action they won't feel like they are at a disadvantage taking serious action themselves. And once the world sees that the U.S. and China are serious about it, getting an international treaty passed would be much more likely.
But much of the damage is already done. Even if we embark on greatly reducing emissions starting TOMORROW, there's still going to be a lot of fall-out for the next few decades, in the form of severe weather systems, tropical storms, and winter blizzards. Not to mention rising sea levels and coastal flooding. Ecosystems will be changing, and we'll still have to adapt.
Sure, we may have to pay slightly more in energy costs in the short-term, but over the long-haul economies of scale should ramp up and who knows what new breakthroughs science and technology will bring to increase efficiency further.
Or we could just keep our heads in the sand, ignore the fact that arable land is rapidly depleting, and face a crisis of food prices skyrocketing and mass-starvation and die-offs happening in the Third World and let nature do its adjustments for us, trimming back our global population a couple billion or so.
The hardest part is getting people to look at the bigger picture, thinking long-term instead of just what affects their pocket-books today.
So yeah, I'm not going to deny it's going to be a hard sell, at least until people see the real consequences of our inaction.
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