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What do you think about India electrifying 300M more people just this year? From the latest climate change report India had a +6.3% change in their emissions in

What do you think about India electrifying 300M more people just this year? From the latest climate change report India had a +6.3% change in their emissions in 2018 and projected to increase a lot more before it gets better. I'm mixed personally on it because with electricity that population will now have access to things like heating, cooling and the internet. India is notorious for pollution problems, so it would be interesting to see if some new innovator could be born out of having access to the electricity that they do now. Carbon emissions is probably going to be the defining challenge of this century and its looking more and more like climate policies are not palatable to the general population. As with other problems in the past we really need to innovate our way out of the problem with advances in fusion, renewables and new durable battery tech. All this fear about climate change makes me want to go back to school and study materials science and do whatever I can to advance tech to steer us off this cliff.

ForHackernews 8y ago
It's probably too late to innovate out (it might be too late to do anything). The recent UN report says we need to cut global net emissions by 50% by 2030 (11 years from now) in order to have a chance of staving off the most catastrophic effects. Is 11 years enough time to invent, deploy, and scale any or all of those technologies? There certainly isn't enough time for you to go back to school, learn what you'd need to learn, and make a meaningful contribution.
- Reason077 8y ago
  Innovation is not what is lacking. We have the technology today to cut global emissions by 50% or more, without major changes to our lifestyles or economy. What is needed, however, is political will. The solutions can be expensive (in the short term), and solving environmental issues that will harm future generations does not win enough votes amongst a population mostly concerned with their own short-term welfare.
  - yostrovs 8y ago
    I assume by "political will" you mean the will of the politicians to do the opposite of what the people that elect them want. Otherwise, considering Paris Accords and such, one would imagine the French are all for green policies. Turns out all that was "political will".
    - betterunix2 8y ago
      Yeah, believe it or not, sometimes politicians need to do the opposite of what the electorate wants. When the electorate votes to kill Socrates, you really want to have someone around who will let him live. Where I live in NJ there are plenty of examples to point to. Raising our gas tax is widely unpopular, and as a result our roads are full of potholes -- so much so that we pay more repairing our cars than we would pay in higher taxes for road maintenance.
      - yostrovs 8y ago
        You may have skipped the lecture on democracy and its advantages and drawbacks.
        betterunix2 8y ago
        You may have skipped the lecture on the difference between direct democracy and representative democracy.
Reason077 8y ago
Electrification is critical in India to reduce air pollution - much of which comes from the inefficient domestic fires used for cooking and heating. Thankfully, renewable energy is expanding rapidly and the government has ambitious targets of 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022 and 275 GW by 2027, up from around 75 GW today.

ForHackernews 8y ago

It's probably too late to innovate out (it might be too late to do anything). The recent UN report says we need to cut global net emissions by 50% by 2030 (11 years from now) in order to have a chance of staving off the most catastrophic effects. Is 11 years enough time to invent, deploy, and scale any or all of those technologies? There certainly isn't enough time for you to go back to school, learn what you'd need to learn, and make a meaningful contribution.

Reason077 8y ago
Innovation is not what is lacking. We have the technology today to cut global emissions by 50% or more, without major changes to our lifestyles or economy. What is needed, however, is political will. The solutions can be expensive (in the short term), and solving environmental issues that will harm future generations does not win enough votes amongst a population mostly concerned with their own short-term welfare.
- yostrovs 8y ago
  I assume by "political will" you mean the will of the politicians to do the opposite of what the people that elect them want. Otherwise, considering Paris Accords and such, one would imagine the French are all for green policies. Turns out all that was "political will".
  - betterunix2 8y ago
    Yeah, believe it or not, sometimes politicians need to do the opposite of what the electorate wants. When the electorate votes to kill Socrates, you really want to have someone around who will let him live. Where I live in NJ there are plenty of examples to point to. Raising our gas tax is widely unpopular, and as a result our roads are full of potholes -- so much so that we pay more repairing our cars than we would pay in higher taxes for road maintenance.
    - yostrovs 8y ago
      You may have skipped the lecture on democracy and its advantages and drawbacks.
      - betterunix2 8y ago
        You may have skipped the lecture on the difference between direct democracy and representative democracy.

Reason077 8y ago

Electrification is critical in India to reduce air pollution - much of which comes from the inefficient domestic fires used for cooking and heating. Thankfully, renewable energy is expanding rapidly and the government has ambitious targets of 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022 and 275 GW by 2027, up from around 75 GW today.