4 ms·

Clean tech will save the day (low carbon generation, batteries, electrification trajectories and rate of change, broadly speaking), but the global fossil indust

Clean tech will save the day (low carbon generation, batteries, electrification trajectories and rate of change, broadly speaking), but the global fossil industry will need to be dismantled faster than some will like. It is a matter of survival, not politics or economics. My hunch is there are not many globally who want to suffocate while trying to exist for shareholder value.

lenerdenator 8mo ago
I'd be willing to bet they go the Spaceballs route and make cans of oxygen a must-have item before they cut the emissions.
- HoldOnAMinute 8mo ago
  Perfect opportunity for a subscription. Amazon Oxygen. Subscribe and Save!
lapcat 8mo ago
> My hunch is there are not many who want to suffocate while trying to exist for shareholder value. Have you... read the news lately? You say it's not a matter of politics, but the politicians are absolutely trying to roll back the clock, push dirty tech, eliminate all environmental protections and regulations.
- embedding-shape 8mo ago
  > but the politicians are absolutely trying to roll back the clock, push dirty tech, eliminate all environmental protections and regulations Yes, in one country who seems hellbent on destroying itself. But looking globally, more and more countries seems to get it at this point, and at least move in the right direction, compared to others. The others will make themselves irrelevant faster than the others can reach a future without fossil fuels.
  - lapcat 8mo ago
    > Yes, in one country who seems hellbent on destroying itself. One of the largest countries in the world, measured by size, population, economy, and military. If you hadn't noticed, the US can do a lot of damage to the rest of the world all by itself. And pollution does not respect borders. Global warming does not respect borders.
    - embedding-shape 8mo ago
      Right, but again, it'll matter less and less as the US hegemony is dying and other countries will pick up the torch, and the ones who are taking over seem to be a bit more willing to both commit and execute on plans to reduce pollution and global warming in general.
      - lapcat 8mo ago
        > the US hegemony is dying The US just deposed the leaders of two countries, Venezuela and Iran, but ok.
        embedding-shape 8mo ago
        > The US just deposed the leaders of two countries, Venezuela and Iran, but ok. If that's how you judge what "empires" will be left in a decade, good for you, ignorance is a bliss sometimes I suppose. Don't look at how the average person live and survives, if you want to continue that way...
        lapcat 8mo ago
        > If that's how you judge what "empires" will be left in a decade, good for you I don't make such predictions. I'm not Nostradamus, and neither are you. I don't think anyone can predict what will happen exactly in a decade. After all, who predicted this a decade ago? > ignorance is a bliss This insult doesn't even make sense. I'm not experiencing bliss over the situation.
- deleted 8mo ago
  [deleted]
- tw04 8mo ago
  You do us all a disservice by saying “the politicians”. The REPUBLICANS are attempting to ignore reality and burn more fossil fuels. Nobody else in America. Name the problem, otherwise you’re implying it’s a bipartisan effort.
  - lapcat 8mo ago
    Obama takes credit for U.S. oil-and-gas boom: ‘That was me, people’ https://apnews.com/article/business-5dfbc1aa17701ae219239caad0bfefb2 https://apnews.com/article/business-5dfbc1aa17701ae219239caa... You have to be born yesterday to believe that Democratic leaders haven't merely hand-waved and virtue-signaled about global warming for decades. I realized this back in the 1990s. Democrats have superior rhetoric, and they are less openly hostile, but their long record of doing nothing to help is unsurpassed. They will fiddle while Republicans burn Rome. And don't forget that Joe Manchin for example was a Democrat, one who dominated Democratic policy during the Biden administration.
    - M3L0NM4N 8mo ago
      We need to push for clean tech obviously. I disagree with Republicans blocking wind farm construction and rolling back regulations, but American energy independence is important for national security, which is a shorter term issue than climate change. And developing more domestic clean energy helps with that as well.
    - HoldOnAMinute 8mo ago
      Exactly. As a Democrat my eyes were opened when I saw the senior leadership do absolutely nothing to impede Trump other than form a strongly worded tweet.
    - knowaveragejoe 8mo ago
      You do the people causing this problem a great service with false equivocations like this. It is clear one group would prefer us to ignore the problem and do nothing at all - in fact encourage the problematic behavior - and the other would very much like to take action on the issue if they had the political power.
obsidianbases1 8mo ago
Where can I find some of that optimism in 2026?
- toomuchtodo 8mo ago
  https://ember-energy.org/focus-areas/clean-electricity/ https://ember-energy.org/focus-areas/clean-electricity/ https://ember-energy.org/data/china-cleantech-exports-data-explorer/ https://ember-energy.org/data/china-cleantech-exports-data-e... https://ember-energy.org/latest-updates/global-solar-installations-surge-64-in-first-half-of-2025/ https://ember-energy.org/latest-updates/global-solar-install... https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/solar-electricity-every-hour-of-every-day-is-here-and-it-changes-everything/ https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/solar-electricity-e... https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/indias-electrotech-fast-track-where-china-built-on-coal-india-is-building-on-sun/ https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/indias-electrotech-... https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/global-electricity-review-2025/ https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/global-electricity-... https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/installed-solar-pv-capacity https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/installed-solar-pv-capaci... https://ourworldindata.org/electric-car-sales https://ourworldindata.org/electric-car-sales https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/battery-price-vs-cumulative-production https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/battery-price-vs-cumulati... Trajectories are favorable and compelling. We can go faster though. “You can just do things.”
throawayonthe 8mo ago
that very much is a matter of politics, people should stop being afraid to acknowledge it real politics are often concerned with survival
tw04 8mo ago
I think you’re grossly underestimating how much the average American can deny with the assistance of social media. The number of people I personally know who thought the country was going to end on J6 who now call the entire thing a “political hoax” breaks my brain. Not to mention the endless posts about “where are all the people claiming COVID was so deadly now?” Who literally completely ignore the MILLIONS of deaths caused by COVID… Until these people have their own son or daughter killed by X - they’ll happily claim it’s not actually a problem. Or find something completely unrelated to blame instead if it doesn’t align with their Twitter feed.
- toomuchtodo 8mo ago
  https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/27/solar-powers-newest-friends-maga-influencers-00802954 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/27/solar-powers-newest... https://www.pewresearch.org/2025/11/05/impact-of-climate-change/ https://www.pewresearch.org/2025/11/05/impact-of-climate-cha... https://www.pewresearch.org/2025/08/19/global-climate-change-as-a-threat/ https://www.pewresearch.org/2025/08/19/global-climate-change... https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2024/12/09/how-americans-view-climate-change-and-policies-to-address-the-issue/ https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2024/12/09/how-americans... https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/09/what-the-data-says-about-americans-views-of-climate-change/ https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/09/what-the-...
boringg 8mo ago
Nuclear will save the day in combination with clean tech. Clean tech on its own is too slowly to be meaningfully impactful by the time we need it.
- toomuchtodo 8mo ago
  It takes ~ten years to build a nuclear generator. In that time, 10TW of solar PV will be deployed at current deployment rates (1TW/year), a bit higher than total global electricity generation capacity currently (~9TW). Fusion is solved, at a distance, with solar, wind, and batteries. Half an hour of sunlight on Earth can power humanity for a year. Long duration storage remains to be solved for, but look how far we’ve come in 1-2 decades. (at this time, short duration storage will likely be LFP, sodium, and other stationary friendly chemistries, but this could change as the state of the art advances rapidly and the commodities market fluctuates)
  - boringg 8mo ago
    Fusion isn't in our lifetimes. Its been 10 years away since the 50s - only to get more R&D grant funding for budget building. If it happened it would be a huge game changer for our economies but it is far away from deployment let along lab proven. It still requires more energy to start/maintain the reaction then it can produce - which is fundamental to success.
    - toomuchtodo 8mo ago
      Solar and wind are fusion generated energy from the sun. “Fusion at a distance.” Fossil fuels are ancient sunlight, ancient fusion.
      - boringg 8mo ago
        A step to far my friend. If we abstract away everything then nothing matters.
        8mo ago
pocksuppet 8mo ago
But everyone wants everyone else to suffocate while delivering shareholder value for themselves. Classic Prisoner's Dilemma.
AlexandrB 8mo ago
> My hunch is there are not many globally who want to suffocate while trying to exist for shareholder value. I hate this kind of hyperbole because it obscures the real dangers. No one is going to suffocate any time soon. Atmospheric CO2 is around 450ppm. The CO2 in a meeting room of a typical office can easily reach 1500ppm or more[1]. Is everyone in meeting rooms "suffocating"? [1] https://www.popsci.com/conference-carbon-dioxide-tired-office-work/ https://www.popsci.com/conference-carbon-dioxide-tired-offic...
- johnboiles 8mo ago
  Yes in one way or another
- johnboiles 8mo ago
  Also, these CO2 canaries are neat. We got one for our office https://a.co/d/02EKUci9 https://a.co/d/02EKUci9
goodpoint 8mo ago
I think you are being downvoted because people only skim "Clean tech will save the day" without reading the whole text.
- toomuchtodo 8mo ago
  I post to educate and inform, the votes are meaningless to me as an observer and scholar field reporting. Humans are tricky, mental models are rigid and can be tied to identity. Facts, data, and information stand on their own regardless of belief. Reality > incomplete or suboptimal mental models.
qingcharles 8mo ago
I thought the current policy was "Drill, baby, drill!"?

lenerdenator 8mo ago

I'd be willing to bet they go the Spaceballs route and make cans of oxygen a must-have item before they cut the emissions.

HoldOnAMinute 8mo ago
Perfect opportunity for a subscription. Amazon Oxygen. Subscribe and Save!

lapcat 8mo ago

> My hunch is there are not many who want to suffocate while trying to exist for shareholder value. Have you... read the news lately? You say it's not a matter of politics, but the politicians are absolutely trying to roll back the clock, push dirty tech, eliminate all environmental protections and regulations.

embedding-shape 8mo ago
> but the politicians are absolutely trying to roll back the clock, push dirty tech, eliminate all environmental protections and regulations Yes, in one country who seems hellbent on destroying itself. But looking globally, more and more countries seems to get it at this point, and at least move in the right direction, compared to others. The others will make themselves irrelevant faster than the others can reach a future without fossil fuels.
- lapcat 8mo ago
  > Yes, in one country who seems hellbent on destroying itself. One of the largest countries in the world, measured by size, population, economy, and military. If you hadn't noticed, the US can do a lot of damage to the rest of the world all by itself. And pollution does not respect borders. Global warming does not respect borders.
  - embedding-shape 8mo ago
    Right, but again, it'll matter less and less as the US hegemony is dying and other countries will pick up the torch, and the ones who are taking over seem to be a bit more willing to both commit and execute on plans to reduce pollution and global warming in general.
    - lapcat 8mo ago
      > the US hegemony is dying The US just deposed the leaders of two countries, Venezuela and Iran, but ok.
      - embedding-shape 8mo ago
        > The US just deposed the leaders of two countries, Venezuela and Iran, but ok. If that's how you judge what "empires" will be left in a decade, good for you, ignorance is a bliss sometimes I suppose. Don't look at how the average person live and survives, if you want to continue that way...
        lapcat 8mo ago
        > If that's how you judge what "empires" will be left in a decade, good for you I don't make such predictions. I'm not Nostradamus, and neither are you. I don't think anyone can predict what will happen exactly in a decade. After all, who predicted this a decade ago? > ignorance is a bliss This insult doesn't even make sense. I'm not experiencing bliss over the situation.
deleted 8mo ago
[deleted]
tw04 8mo ago
You do us all a disservice by saying “the politicians”. The REPUBLICANS are attempting to ignore reality and burn more fossil fuels. Nobody else in America. Name the problem, otherwise you’re implying it’s a bipartisan effort.
- lapcat 8mo ago
  Obama takes credit for U.S. oil-and-gas boom: ‘That was me, people’ https://apnews.com/article/business-5dfbc1aa17701ae219239caad0bfefb2 https://apnews.com/article/business-5dfbc1aa17701ae219239caa... You have to be born yesterday to believe that Democratic leaders haven't merely hand-waved and virtue-signaled about global warming for decades. I realized this back in the 1990s. Democrats have superior rhetoric, and they are less openly hostile, but their long record of doing nothing to help is unsurpassed. They will fiddle while Republicans burn Rome. And don't forget that Joe Manchin for example was a Democrat, one who dominated Democratic policy during the Biden administration.
  - M3L0NM4N 8mo ago
    We need to push for clean tech obviously. I disagree with Republicans blocking wind farm construction and rolling back regulations, but American energy independence is important for national security, which is a shorter term issue than climate change. And developing more domestic clean energy helps with that as well.
  - HoldOnAMinute 8mo ago
    Exactly. As a Democrat my eyes were opened when I saw the senior leadership do absolutely nothing to impede Trump other than form a strongly worded tweet.
  - knowaveragejoe 8mo ago
    You do the people causing this problem a great service with false equivocations like this. It is clear one group would prefer us to ignore the problem and do nothing at all - in fact encourage the problematic behavior - and the other would very much like to take action on the issue if they had the political power.

obsidianbases1 8mo ago

Where can I find some of that optimism in 2026?

toomuchtodo 8mo ago
https://ember-energy.org/focus-areas/clean-electricity/ https://ember-energy.org/focus-areas/clean-electricity/ https://ember-energy.org/data/china-cleantech-exports-data-explorer/ https://ember-energy.org/data/china-cleantech-exports-data-e... https://ember-energy.org/latest-updates/global-solar-installations-surge-64-in-first-half-of-2025/ https://ember-energy.org/latest-updates/global-solar-install... https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/solar-electricity-every-hour-of-every-day-is-here-and-it-changes-everything/ https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/solar-electricity-e... https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/indias-electrotech-fast-track-where-china-built-on-coal-india-is-building-on-sun/ https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/indias-electrotech-... https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/global-electricity-review-2025/ https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/global-electricity-... https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/installed-solar-pv-capacity https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/installed-solar-pv-capaci... https://ourworldindata.org/electric-car-sales https://ourworldindata.org/electric-car-sales https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/battery-price-vs-cumulative-production https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/battery-price-vs-cumulati... Trajectories are favorable and compelling. We can go faster though. “You can just do things.”

throawayonthe 8mo ago

that very much is a matter of politics, people should stop being afraid to acknowledge it real politics are often concerned with survival

tw04 8mo ago

I think you’re grossly underestimating how much the average American can deny with the assistance of social media. The number of people I personally know who thought the country was going to end on J6 who now call the entire thing a “political hoax” breaks my brain. Not to mention the endless posts about “where are all the people claiming COVID was so deadly now?” Who literally completely ignore the MILLIONS of deaths caused by COVID… Until these people have their own son or daughter killed by X - they’ll happily claim it’s not actually a problem. Or find something completely unrelated to blame instead if it doesn’t align with their Twitter feed.

toomuchtodo 8mo ago
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/27/solar-powers-newest-friends-maga-influencers-00802954 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/27/solar-powers-newest... https://www.pewresearch.org/2025/11/05/impact-of-climate-change/ https://www.pewresearch.org/2025/11/05/impact-of-climate-cha... https://www.pewresearch.org/2025/08/19/global-climate-change-as-a-threat/ https://www.pewresearch.org/2025/08/19/global-climate-change... https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2024/12/09/how-americans-view-climate-change-and-policies-to-address-the-issue/ https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2024/12/09/how-americans... https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/09/what-the-data-says-about-americans-views-of-climate-change/ https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/09/what-the-...

boringg 8mo ago

Nuclear will save the day in combination with clean tech. Clean tech on its own is too slowly to be meaningfully impactful by the time we need it.

toomuchtodo 8mo ago
It takes ~ten years to build a nuclear generator. In that time, 10TW of solar PV will be deployed at current deployment rates (1TW/year), a bit higher than total global electricity generation capacity currently (~9TW). Fusion is solved, at a distance, with solar, wind, and batteries. Half an hour of sunlight on Earth can power humanity for a year. Long duration storage remains to be solved for, but look how far we’ve come in 1-2 decades. (at this time, short duration storage will likely be LFP, sodium, and other stationary friendly chemistries, but this could change as the state of the art advances rapidly and the commodities market fluctuates)
- boringg 8mo ago
  Fusion isn't in our lifetimes. Its been 10 years away since the 50s - only to get more R&D grant funding for budget building. If it happened it would be a huge game changer for our economies but it is far away from deployment let along lab proven. It still requires more energy to start/maintain the reaction then it can produce - which is fundamental to success.
  - toomuchtodo 8mo ago
    Solar and wind are fusion generated energy from the sun. “Fusion at a distance.” Fossil fuels are ancient sunlight, ancient fusion.
    - boringg 8mo ago
      A step to far my friend. If we abstract away everything then nothing matters.
      - 8mo ago

pocksuppet 8mo ago

But everyone wants everyone else to suffocate while delivering shareholder value for themselves. Classic Prisoner's Dilemma.

AlexandrB 8mo ago

> My hunch is there are not many globally who want to suffocate while trying to exist for shareholder value. I hate this kind of hyperbole because it obscures the real dangers. No one is going to suffocate any time soon. Atmospheric CO2 is around 450ppm. The CO2 in a meeting room of a typical office can easily reach 1500ppm or more[1]. Is everyone in meeting rooms "suffocating"? [1] https://www.popsci.com/conference-carbon-dioxide-tired-office-work/ https://www.popsci.com/conference-carbon-dioxide-tired-offic...

johnboiles 8mo ago
Yes in one way or another
johnboiles 8mo ago
Also, these CO2 canaries are neat. We got one for our office https://a.co/d/02EKUci9 https://a.co/d/02EKUci9

goodpoint 8mo ago

I think you are being downvoted because people only skim "Clean tech will save the day" without reading the whole text.

toomuchtodo 8mo ago
I post to educate and inform, the votes are meaningless to me as an observer and scholar field reporting. Humans are tricky, mental models are rigid and can be tied to identity. Facts, data, and information stand on their own regardless of belief. Reality > incomplete or suboptimal mental models.

qingcharles 8mo ago

I thought the current policy was "Drill, baby, drill!"?