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We really shouldn't have waited this long to start transitioning to clean energy. If 2050 really is the point of no return (somewhere around then, from what I'v

We really shouldn't have waited this long to start transitioning to clean energy. If 2050 really is the point of no return (somewhere around then, from what I've heard), we'll have to replace over a century of infrastructure in about 20 years. And scaling is the hardest part. (we've already done some scaling, but renewables only account for ~20% of US energy, so we have to 5x that) Then, there's less developed countries, which can't fund subsidies and have unstable governments making it less likely for big infrastructure projects to get started anyways. Not to mention oil-based economies. Many of them are just sticking their heads in the sand pretending oil will hold up their economy forever. This will be disastrous for them, and I'm sure many will lobby to stop clean energy (which will only make things worse for the planet). Only Saudi Arabia is really trying to diversify. As I said, we really should have started sooner so we could get the politics out of the way and we could just be focusing on deployment at scale today.

vladms 3y ago
Information takes time to disseminate to people. I think the transition happened "as fast as it could" given that people tend to oppose change, have a hard time understand scientific results and science takes a long time anyhow. If anything I would say "we should educate more people". Because that is the only thing that might prevent the next "we shouldn't have waited..." (for any of the problems that we could solve, but people just don't think/understand them - like antibiotic microbial resistance and other topics)
alfor 3y ago
Solar and batteries are on an expodential path. The cost is going down so fast it won't make sense to have anything else. I think that by 2035 most of the transition will be done even if we don't have major new developpement, but if you look at what AI is finding in new materials I think that the next few years are going to be very weird. Look into Tony Seby, he predicted the current path 10y ago.

vladms 3y ago

Information takes time to disseminate to people. I think the transition happened "as fast as it could" given that people tend to oppose change, have a hard time understand scientific results and science takes a long time anyhow. If anything I would say "we should educate more people". Because that is the only thing that might prevent the next "we shouldn't have waited..." (for any of the problems that we could solve, but people just don't think/understand them - like antibiotic microbial resistance and other topics)

alfor 3y ago

Solar and batteries are on an expodential path. The cost is going down so fast it won't make sense to have anything else. I think that by 2035 most of the transition will be done even if we don't have major new developpement, but if you look at what AI is finding in new materials I think that the next few years are going to be very weird. Look into Tony Seby, he predicted the current path 10y ago.