Honestly, the more we dig into the complexity of the thorny issues we face, the more obvious it becomes that we have no real idea what we’re dealing with. The planetary systems that maintain balance have been severely disrupted, in the main part by land use change (destruction of forests, infilling wetlands etc) which has had a near catastrophic impact on water cycles at the local and planetary level. Yet few people are even discussing this.
Yes, population growth and increasing complexity of society (read Joseph Tainter) are interlinked with fossil fuels since these easy fuels enabled expansion of both. Fossil fuel usage and population level must therefore be wound down in tandem. Increasing social complexity leads to diminishing returns on cost (see the high cost of nuclear) and attempting to decrease complexity leads to the possibility of collapse (as with Trump).
Some of the coverage on Blair's comments suggested that the UK's emissions are
"miniscule" as a % of the global total and so the UK should be exempt from net zero,
likewise France, Spain, and Italy etc are miniscule emitters too, thus the whole of
Europe is exempt, the individual states of the USA could make the same justification...
Honestly, the more we dig into the complexity of the thorny issues we face, the more obvious it becomes that we have no real idea what we’re dealing with. The planetary systems that maintain balance have been severely disrupted, in the main part by land use change (destruction of forests, infilling wetlands etc) which has had a near catastrophic impact on water cycles at the local and planetary level. Yet few people are even discussing this.
Yes, population growth and increasing complexity of society (read Joseph Tainter) are interlinked with fossil fuels since these easy fuels enabled expansion of both. Fossil fuel usage and population level must therefore be wound down in tandem. Increasing social complexity leads to diminishing returns on cost (see the high cost of nuclear) and attempting to decrease complexity leads to the possibility of collapse (as with Trump).