Countries are falling short on reducing emissions, but British data scientist Hannah Ritchie looks at the numbers and sees the world making real gains on climate change. In an interview, she talks about the unheralded progress she sees in the global shift to clean energy.
I’m not disputing the situation we’re actually in. What I’m pointing out is that we don’t know for certain what will happen, and all we can do is prepare to the best of our ability. I’m not sure what you find so controversial about that.
That’s what I find controversial, we basically do know for certain what will happen and it’s at least 4c warming guaranteed by now, which will create an apocalypse. Humanity will survive, sure, but in pockets as-is. 1% emmission reductions aren’t doing anything at all about that.
While 4c warming is certainly a very possible scenario, it is by no means guaranteed. That aside, you continue to ignore what I’m actually saying to you, which is that we can use technology to help buffer against the effects of the climate. Even at 4c warming, it will be possible to maintain civilization, just not in the form it exists today. I’m not talking about 1% emission reductions solving the problem anywhere. What I actually said that stuff like solar makes it possible to do indoor farming and provide air conditioning that will make it possible to make it through droughts and heatwaves. Our globalized economy is absolutely going to collapse once climate disasters become more prevalent, but that just means building out resilience at local scale. Simply saying that we’re headed for 4c climate apocalypse and everything is meaningless is not constrictive in any way. It’s just fatalism and it leads to doing nothing useful.
I didn’t say everything is meaningless, I’m saying we need realistic solutions and a tiny amount of solar isn’t going to mitigate shit.
You haven’t actually articulated any solutions here, realistic or otherwise. And if you think that over a terawatt of power is “tiny”, then really don’t know what else to say https://reneweconomy.com.au/just-staggering-china-installs-100-solar-panels-a-second-as-total-pv-capacity-tops-1-terawatt/
So less than .0001% of global power useage? That doesn’t qualify as tiny? You’re right I don’t have an answer but you’re proposing magic which is worse.
Clean generation met 81% of the 2024 demand increase in China https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/global-electricity-review-2025/major-countries-and-regions/
China’s emissions fall despite increased energy demand https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-clean-energy-just-put-chinas-co2-emissions-into-reverse-for-first-time/
China’s total installed renewable power capacity reached about 1.41 billion kilowatts at the end of 2024, accounting for over 40% of its total elecricity capacity and surpassing coal-fired power installations https://english.www.gov.cn/archive/statistics/202504/25/content_WS680b7b79c6d0868f4e8f2141.html
China alone accounts for approximately 30% of the world’s electricity production https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_China
So not sure where you pulled your .0001% power usage there. Seems to me like you’re just pulling numbers out of thin air here.
Meanwhile, I’m not proposing any magic. I’m pointing out that we have to do what we can to mitigate the damage. Not sure how that qualifies as magic in your mind. You’re not even trying to engage with anything being said yo you here.
Global power consumption is somewhere in the neihborhood of 25000 terawatt hours. Is 1 terawatt supposed to mitigate some damage? I’d love to know how.
See this is what I mean by you refusing to engage with what’s being said to you. I consistently and repeatedly stated that the point is not simply reduction of emissions, but using local power generation to mitigate the effects of global warming that are already baked in. You’ve consistently ignored this point, and continued talking about percentage of emissions reduction.
However, even if we look at that, it’s quite obvious that renewables and nuclear are already a large chunk of energy production https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-consumption