First
carbon emissions must peak no later than 2025, then decline to reach
the net zero goal by 2050. Put another way, the CO2 emissions of the
last decade is the amount that is allowed to us for the next three.
Experts believe that we will have to resort to negative emissions in the second half of this century, to compensate for all that is already there, to limit warming to 1.5Â degreesC. They also warn us that if emissions are not controlled by 2030 and continue to rise, there will be so much up there we may have difficulty controlling them at all.
On
the positive side, CO2 can be extracted and stored, and changes in
farming practices plus tree planting can all help. The machines
extracting CO2 are new and very expensive. But there is always hope
that scientists and technologists can improve that aspect over time.
Perhaps
individual consciousness of climate change will affect behavior. A
couple of examples: we can all reduce very short automobile trips or
their frequency by bunching errands and car sharing; we can substitute
pork for beef and lamb because ruminants produce more gas, and so on.
Let us continue to hope we humans are up to the challenge.
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