What we actually need to do
There is really only one way to get greenhouse gas emissions down to zero--turn off Industrialism and get global population below bioregional carrying capacity boundaries. By Industrialism, I mean economic determinism; the concept that our highest calling in life is to be an economic actor, and that the market can cure every ill and fulfill every desire. Everything else is subservient to this, and nothing else could possibly provide the same degree of meaning and purpose in life. Production and consumption are the be-all and end-all of human society, and whether they are provided under the economic principles of socialism, capitalism or a mixed-market is irrelevant to Industrialism.
Industrialism not just mechanistic factory automation; it is a way of organizing the world that reduces all the world's substance to resources to be used as inputs to the industrial process, and reduces all the world's people to either customers or workers. It is a system defined by ever-increasing growth and throughput, decreasing costs, and a narrowly measured spectrum of efficiency that externalizes all negative consequences--as if the poisoner had not intended the death of its victims. Industrialism turns nature into commodities while dismantling and creating compounds toxic to nature. The industrial growth paradigm sees Earth as both an endless supply of resource and a bottomless pit for waste. The scientific terminology for this process is turning low-entropy resources into high-entropy wastes. The consumer society merely provides a short little layover--a fondling period, if you will--to this process. The planned obsolescence and creeping featuritis of the throw-away society are manifestations of this.
Because of Industrialism, we cannot be inhabitants of a sensuous living world, but are reduced to customers of the theme park known as America, Inc. And we're busily trying to export this model to the rest of the world, perhaps thinking that if the rest of the world shares our pathology, it won't reflect so badly on us. The common rationalization for this is that it's just "human nature" after all to let the pathologies of greed, selfishness, aggression, and arrogance merge into narcissistic entitlement. That concept, by the way, is false outside of a very limited context.
Today's cultural story is built on an 18th Century misunderstanding of human nature and the mistaken belief in Earth as a dead, linear, clockwork mechanism of perfect individual pieces in constant competition. Business As Usual means continuously growing production, consumption, and toxic wastes, which means the status quo is an unmitigated ecological catastrophe that requires war and leads to inequality and poverty. This is just basic physics and elementary math.
Here's the summary of where we are and how we got here: the climate is changing because the globe we call Earth is warming. This warming is caused by human activities that create greenhouse gases (primarily from burning fossil fuels in one form or another), deforestation, ocean acidification, and fewer natural carbon sinks from sprawling urbanization, destruction of wetlands, intentional industrial wastelands, and industrial agriculture--global topsoil is depleted about 50% and soil is what actually feeds us. These activities are all carried out to further the cause of Industrialism and its incessant need for growth. Growth in a material economy requires massive amounts of energy of increasing quality and decreasing cost, and fossil fuels have been able to meet that requirement since coal fired off the Industrial Revolution in England.
This is where crises start converging. Quality fossil fuels are getting harder and more expensive to acquire. To keep the global economy growing, even at historical anemic rates, requires pulling low quality stuff out of increasingly harder to reach places that deplete even faster; that cause even more environmental damage and a larger contribution to greenhouse gases. The system must run ever faster against increasing odds just to keep up. The only other thing that's been shown to work is illegally invading sovereign nations to steal theirs.
The peak in conventional fossil fuel extraction took place back in 2005. This is a problem because the future valuation, and thus the stock price, of shareholder corporations are based on growth, which becomes uncertain at best with increasing energy costs and decreasing availability over the long-haul. This doesn't even factor in decreasing consumer demand for goods that are becoming less affordable and simply aren't fulfilling anyway.
A related problem is that renewable energy sources simply don't have the energy density. Fossil fuels used to have an energy returned on energy invested (EREI) ratio of about 30:1. This means for every unit of energy put into extraction and processing, you'd get 30 units of usable energy out. Today's fossil fuel mix gives about 5:1, and the best of renewables are about half that. Hydro is actually close to today's fossil fuels, but if you have to use long-distance transmission lines, the losses cause it to lose its advantage. The overall problem here is that modern industrial culture requires somewhere between 10-12:1 to keep the lights on and ensure you have toilet paper... and ample supplies of Prozac to ensure you don't worry yourself over this too much.
We most definitely need to do something, and it's going to have to be based on a different set of assumptions. Our current mode of thinking, the dominant paradigm of the Industrial Growth Society, isn't going to get us out of the mess it's created. But I believe there are a small set of objectives we can agree on to one degree or another if we're willing to admit the anthropogenic causes of global warming, and that there is a rational, emotionally stable, and spiritually fulfilling alternative that can be shown to improve quality of life. Strategy and tactics will come next.
* We must stop contributing to global warming. This means all greenhouse gases, deforestation, sprawl, planned obsolescence, growth at any cost must be stopped.
* Gross Domestic Product (GDP) must be dropped from economic analysis. It was never designed to be a measure of economic welfare. It is, however, a very good metric of destruction. Using a GDP analysis, the most productive economic actor is the 30-something male who totals his BMW on the way to his divorce lawyer and spends 6 months in intensive care. The alternative is a measurement known as the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI).
* We must build true equity into the economic system. This is not a call for communism or central planning. The concepts of merit, skill, experience, craftsmanship, and ability to play well with others are all important factors in compensation, whether monetary or through social status. We are an inquisitive, innovative, and intelligent species. Entrepreneurship isn't going to disappear because the incentive of owning a second private jet has disappeared. But piratization... err... privatizaton must be stopped, and the commons returned to the people and their duly appointed governments.
* We must put people and planet above profit and power. It's time to write a new story that doesn't idolize greed and selfishness and that celebrates cooperative networks. Corporate personhood must be legally abolished. Our legal fictions must not be allowed to rule us.
* We must accept that local ecologies, which are biotic communities, have been ripped asunder and that we must stop biodiversity loss. The main reason is pretty simple; no food chain means no food. For us or any other creature. This is where the ocean acidification aspect of global warming is so worrisome.
* We must start designing a sustainable future, starting with an honest accounting of carrying capacity, especially in foreign policy, aid, and trade. We at least need a ballpark figure, which we can determine, for what standard of living can supply an acceptable quality of life for how many people indefinitely?
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