Could we stop or reverse global warming without substantially reducing our standard of living

[mn9driver]

10. Hydrogen

Everything we do today where we need a lot of mobile, stored energy can in principle be done with hydrogen. Cars, aircraft, home heating, everything. The problem is that separating and storing the hydrogen takes power. A lot of power. We would need to put a lot more effort into solar/wind/ hydro power generation in order to make it work since generating the needed electricity with carbon based fuel would totally defeat the purpose.

In the spirit of "even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then", Dick Cheney admitted this was the only long term solution to human energy needs a few years back. Unfortunately, he thought that nuclear power generation was the solution, which we know isn't practical or even remotely safe using current technology.

Of course, if we ever break the code on battery technology we could be a lot more efficient and cut out the hydrogen middle man. So far, we're not there.

And that leaves the problem of just the current CO2 levels in the atmosphere which are on track to produce more warming in the years to come, even if we stopped pumping more out today. We may very well have already passed the tipping point; the Greenland melt data gives me very little hope that we haven't already.