Thread by @nephologue

Here we are in the 2020s, climate change largely out of control and getting worse, with a great many still advocating that "we know the solutions, all we need is the political will".

Here's where I think we screwed up, by not acknowledging the "counterintuitive" 1/

The obvious solutions are
1. Population control
2. Reducing consumption by the rich
3. Increasing efficiency
4. Switching to renewables

Easy, right? But what if the obvious solutions are entirely the wrong solutions? 2/

1. Growing population drives consumption and CO2 emissions

No. People are made of matter, sustained by energy. Population growth requires expansion of available raw resources, which in turn is not possible without past technological change.
nephologue.blogspot.com/2019/06/it-see… 3/

2. The rich are to blame for CO2 emissions

No. We are all connected, not just in the present, but to all our predecessors who carried us forward to today. There is no individual carbon footprint only a cumulatively global historical footprint
nephologue.blogspot.com/2018/05/whats-… 4/

3. We need to get more energy efficient

No. True only if the economy's size is fixed. Instead, like a healthy growing child, past efficiency gains through technological change offer the means by which we grow today to consume more in the future.

nephologue.blogspot.com/2018/09/is-inc… 5/

4. We need to accelerate the switch to renewables

No. Any new energy source adds impetus to the conversion of raw resources into the stuff of civilization, accelerating growth and future demands for all energy types. Renewables add not replace.

nephologue.blogspot.com/2018/07/are-re… 6/

What should we do to slow climate change? Maybe the obvious solution is simply too unpalatable. Who would vote for rewinding civilization to a very distant past before we accumulated our technological acumen, maybe even before we mastered the flame? 7/

Few, perhaps, would accept technological collapse as a climate change solution. But the alternative of blaming the rich, parents, fossil fuel companies, or SUVs, while it may feel right, is not right.
journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…