"It's worse than we thought." Sound familiar?

[AverageJoe90]

86. Okay. But is failure really inevitable?

And that actually explains, even better than the last graph, why we've seen additional Co2.

The only way out of this box is for the world to use less energy.

Well, certainly, we could do without coal, that much is true.

Of course, an approach requiring the voluntary reduction in energy use to the extent that economic activity is sharply reduced is likewise doomed to failure. So in the end, civilization is doomed to failure. We cannot do what is needed.

The problem with this kind of thinking, though, is a.)The argument that reduction in Co2 emissions would necessarily lead to a sharp economic decline has been thoroughly debunked, including by Pacala & Sokolow and others, and b.)More importantly, when did ANY social, economic, etc. movement succeed when it's adherents believe that failure is totally inevitable?

My point is, those of you out there who believe that failure is likely, are of course, entitled to their own opinions, but a legitimate concern that many of the rest of us have is if this thinking becomes too heavily represented, it will ultimately backfire and very well could contribute, perhaps even directly, to actual failure. And that's a risk I'm not willing to take, and I'm sure many fellow environmentalists on DU will at least agree with that.