GOOD NEWS!!!!!!! India's carbon dioxide emissions will "only" double by 2030.

[NNadir]

Good News

Currently the per capita carbon dioxide emissions of an Indian is roughly 1.7 MT/yr, compared to 16.6 for Americans.



The caption:

Energy-related CO2 emissions history of China (red), the US (yellow), the EU28 (blue) and India (purple). Per capita figures in 2014 are given to the right-hand side of the chart. Note that the data in this figure include negligible amounts of non-CO2 gases from other fuels and fugitive emissions which could not be segregated in the dataset. Source: WRI Climate Analysis Indicators Tool (CAIT)

We are superior, of course, to Indians, since we worship Elon Musk and Tesla cars, but a bad person not prone to celebrating our grand victory over climate change here by continuous chanting of "watts...watts...watts" might note that if India, with a population estimated at 1.324 billion people had per capita consumption equal to the United States, 16.6 tons per human being, their emissions would be 22 billion tons.

Despite the grand victory of solar and wind, last year the world dumped approximately 35 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the planetary atmosphere, a world record. We zipped past 400 ppm of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere two years ago, and no one now living will ever see a quantity smaller than that ever.

But, old person that I am, so ignorant as to believe that a political philosophy that ignores human poverty is both morally bankrupt and environmentally unsustainable, well, I need to get with the program.

ELON MUSK IS SAVING THE WORLD!!!!! Rocket ships!!!!!! Electric Cars!!!!!! Solar Roofs!!!!!

Anyway. How dare Indians think they should live as we do?

I have to stop giving a shit; I have to stop believing that reality matters; I have to stop caring about the future...

Who do I think I am?

There is no political will, anywhere, to do anything other than mutter platitudes.

Spitting in the wind only leaves you with drool on your face.

[True Dough]

1. It is concerning, confounding, frustrating

And yet I don't personally make all the environmentally-friendly choices that I could in my own life. My wife and I don't have kids. We live in a tolerable climate (for now) and probably will ride this out during our lifetimes, although one never knows. The cataclysmic stuff -- if it truly befalls our planet -- will likely happen after we're gone. I do fear for the next generation and the one after that. Hopefully ingenuity prevails.

[StevieM]

2. A major breakthrough in geoengineering is our only hope at this point.

Beyond that, we are looking at human extinction.

I also don't have kids and am glad that I don't. I fear for any children that my nephews and nieces may have.