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Here's the thing. Nobody wants to admit that solving climate change will involve reducing the standard of living of a lot of people. I don't think that's neces

by NickM 5y ago

Here's the thing. Nobody wants to admit that solving climate change will involve reducing the standard of living of a lot of people. I don't think that's necessarily true. It will be expensive to switch to renewables, certainly, but the ongoing externalities and subsidies for fossil fuels are already extremely expensive to society. Even if you completely ignore climate change, the costs in terms of healthcare and QALYs just due to air pollution alone are tremendous. We have the technology we need to solve climate change already, the problem is not that people aren't willing to make the necessary sacrifices, the problem is that it's hard to get past societal inertia and overcome entrenched special interests.

kortilla 5y ago
> but the ongoing externalities and subsidies for fossil fuels are already extremely expensive to society Not really, that’s why it’s an externality. The damage in the US caused by climate change is maybe a few billion annually in increased hurricanes right now. That’s only like $10/person a year. This is why it requires getting people to understand the future damage that will be caused. What’s happening now isn’t enough to justify doubling electricity costs, etc because most citizens aren’t feeling any pain from climate change. > the costs in terms of healthcare and QALYs just due to air pollution alone are tremendous. CO2 != “air pollution” in the sense that causes health problems.