We don’t have time - we had time 15-20 years ago and did less than the minimum required, so we will hit +1.5 degrees C very soon, which itself is bad, but we are easily on track for +2C and probably worse. That’s disastrous. And this isn’t factoring in other feedback loops that might kick in and make this irreversible, like widespread melting of the permafrost or the methane hydrates in the deep ocean (both of which have already started and will only get worse).
In the developed world, we have made gains in medicine and technology, but that just means this could be as good as it gets.
Is there hope? Sure. If China switched off all its coal-fired power stations and used gas, nuclear and renewables we’d be back on track for only hitting +1.5C and it would possibly buy us enough time to build renewables, make viable fusion reactors, etc. However, they already know this and aren’t making any moves to change when no-one else is - for example, Germany are looking to bring their coal-fired power stations back online this Winter.
We don’t have time - we had time 15-20 years ago and did less than the minimum required, so we will hit +1.5 degrees C very soon, which itself is bad, but we are easily on track for +2C and probably worse. That’s disastrous. And this isn’t factoring in other feedback loops that might kick in and make this irreversible, like widespread melting of the permafrost or the methane hydrates in the deep ocean (both of which have already started and will only get worse).
In the developed world, we have made gains in medicine and technology, but that just means this could be as good as it gets.
Is there hope? Sure. If China switched off all its coal-fired power stations and used gas, nuclear and renewables we’d be back on track for only hitting +1.5C and it would possibly buy us enough time to build renewables, make viable fusion reactors, etc. However, they already know this and aren’t making any moves to change when no-one else is - for example, Germany are looking to bring their coal-fired power stations back online this Winter.