Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet, 2021a

9 Climate Change 158
The last chapters in this book, beginning with Chapter 18, deal with
human factors that contribute to our prospects, ending at Chapter 20
discussing mitigation strategies at the individual level. It’s not geoengineering,
but behavioral adaptation leading to reduction can have a
huge impact, if broadly adopted.
9.6 Upshot: Climate Change is Serious
Despite the ease with which we can demonstrate that the measured
CO 2 is from fossil fuels, <strong>and</strong> the straightforward physics governing the
equilibrium temperature in the face of greenhouse gases, it is astounding
that we are not fully embracing reality. But perhaps it should not
be surprising. Climate change is a clear-<strong>and</strong>-present affront to some
economic <strong>and</strong> political ideologies that wish we would let markets set
our path, with no consequence. But operating in denial <strong>and</strong> insisting
that we keep to the way things worked in the past is not our smartest
play. Climate change is a stark indication that we can’t just do whatever
makes us the most money. Alternatives to fossil fuels are expensive <strong>and</strong>
less convenient. Climate change is bad for business, <strong>and</strong> also threatens
capitalism by imposing limits on our ambitions. It is little wonder that
the U.S. has been among the most resistant to accepting climate change
realities, being the most proud capitalist country, boasting an enormous
per-capita energy dem<strong>and</strong>, <strong>and</strong> having contributed the most to global
CO 2 emissions throughout history (Figure 9.5).
As real as climate change is, it is less clear whether it represents an
existential threat to civilization. 72 As costly as it may be to adapt, 73
the changes are gradual enough on a human timescale to possibly be
manageable—though decidedly less than fun.
Resource 74 disruptions, however, can send markets into free-fall <strong>and</strong>
stimulate global military actions that could be far more devastating on a
shorter timescale. We are in a sort of a race to see which causes the biggest
problem the soonest. With luck, a third option presents itself that does
not involve such hardship. But just keep in mind that human society is a
highly nonlinear construct that could become unrecognizably disrupted
on a much faster scale than will be the case for the physics-governed
unfolding of climate change.
72: Is it apocalyptic, or just very painful?
73: . . . ab<strong>and</strong>oning some coastal areas, migrating
away from unsurvivable climate
regions, reducing population to deal with
decline of agricultural resources, adapting
to new ecosystems robbed of some species
74: . . . e.g., energy, water, food, mined substances
9.7 Problems
1. If you were asked to characterize a typical carbon cost of fossil
fuels, in grams of CO 2 emitted per gram of input fuel, what single
simple number would be a good approximation to all three types,
referring to Table 9.1?
© 2021 T. W. Murphy, Jr.; Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Lic.;
Freely available at: https://escholarship.org/uc/energy_ambitions.