That, in summary is what Ross Clark recommends in his Not Zero book. After all, humans have found ways to live in places which often exceed 40 degrees C. in summer and others which often get below minus 40 degrees C. in winter. From tropical rain forests to deserts, from 1400 feet below sea level on the shores of the Dead Sea to 18,000 feet above sea level, and places where the wind regularly exceeds 100mph. Why would we not be able to cope with a one or two degrees increase in temperature and a slight increase in rainfall?
The trouble with net zero is that we will be poorer and less able to put in place the measures to deal with climate extremes which are already happening as part of the natural climate variability. Poverty is the biggest problem, not climate.
The IPCC do not claim that the extremes will be much worse than now. The problem with wind and solar is that they are intermittent. If there is no back-up then we risk blackouts. The cost of back up is far greater than the cost of the electricity.
ReplyDeleteEvery doubter seems to not realize that grid level storage is a reality being built in as we speak. There is a reason for calling this change a transition. As we get above 90% RE, how storage and transmission will take place will be worked on the whole time before we get there. We can always pause until we get it right.
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