(TED Talk) Amory Lovins: A 50-year plan for energy

[NickB79]

62. I'm going by respected scientists such as James Hansen

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/opinion/game-over-for-the-climate.html?_r=3&emc=eta1

GLOBAL warming isn’t a prediction. It is happening. That is why I was so troubled to read a recent interview with President Obama in Rolling Stone in which he said that Canada would exploit the oil in its vast tar sands reserves “regardless of what we do.”

If Canada proceeds, and we do nothing, it will be game over for the climate.

And by all the new research that finds fracked gas is as bad for climate change as burning coal: http://www.treehugger.com/fossil-fuels/natural-gas-from-fracking-emissions-can-double-those-from-coal.html

"The [greenhouse gas] footprint for shale gas is greater than that for conventional gas or oil when viewed on any time horizon, but particularly so over 20 years. Compared to coal, the footprint of shale gas is at least 20% greater and perhaps more than twice as great on the 20-year horizon and is comparable when compared over 100 years," states the upcoming study from Howarth, who is a professor of ecology and environmental biology, and other Cornell researchers.

This wasn't taken into consideration by the IPCC because it was only discovered in the past year, after the IPCC concluded their latest climate panel. And fracked natural gas appears to be the next big thing energy-wise, with the US setting up to become a net energy exporter of our dirty gas within the next decade.

I understand, you really don't want to hear these things. And I agree with you: I really hope you're right and I'm wrong. But I just can't see how this is going to end well for the human race or the planet when all the trends are pointing in the wrong direction. The one thing that would really, truly change my mind that we might be OK would be to see the atmospheric CO2 trend flatline and then start to decline. But so far, we're almost to 400ppm CO2 with no end in sight at this point.