According to Forbes employee and clean tech entrepreneur Wal van Lierop, climate change is such an emergency that the Covid-19 lockdown should continue indefinitely as a lockdown on climate change.
We need Operation Warp Speed to fight climate change
Bank of Lierop
Dec 19, 2020 4:42 p.m. EST
When I wrote about the new Roaring 20s last December, the world was largely unaware of COVID-19. Although the pandemic has caused indescribable tragedies and difficulties, it has also shown that with adequate motivation and funding, humanity can do the impossible. That scientists have developed safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines in less than a year is evidence of our untapped potential in solving global problems.
The lesson for climate change is that we can solve this crisis if we act with equal force. But we need Operation Warp Speed for the climate. Thanks to the European and South Korean green deals and President-elect Joe Biden’s $ 2 trillion climate change plan, the world is able to do so. Just as the original Operation Warp Speed met the need for timely new treatments and vaccines, this operation would provide groundbreaking innovations for our climate crisis.
…
1. Secure lifestyle changes brought about by COVID-19
When the COVID-19 lockdown began in the spring, people adapted their behavior and daily CO2 emissions decreased by an average of 17% worldwide. BP and other energy companies expect COVID-19 to permanently curb demand for fossil fuels.
We have found that global lifestyle changes are possible and have a massive impact on emissions. A recent survey commissioned by JLL JLL + 0.6%, a commercial real estate company, found that 72% of office workers want a hybrid model that allows them to work at home several days a week after the crisis has ended. A quarter would like to continue to work full-time remotely. Let’s include these changes to reduce commuter pollution. In the meantime, we need a way to get people safely back onto public transport (it is no longer possible to use it). And in cases where transportation is inevitable or has even increased, like shopping online and shipping freight, it’s time to scale up electric trucks and hydrogen-powered cargo ships.
Let’s make sure that business travel never returns to its former excesses. Most of the time there is no reason to go on one day trips around the globe. Regular business meetings can be carried out more efficiently virtually, supplemented by occasional personal contacts.
Governments could cement these lifestyle changes through tax deductions and the permanent end of fossil fuel subsidies, as I wrote last year. In response, people would reduce their fossil fuel consumption and innovators would come up with carbon-free alternatives sooner than otherwise. If a deadly virus changed our lifestyle at Warp Speed, why couldn’t a deadly climate crisis do the same?
…
Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/walvanlierop/2020/12/19/we-need-an-operation-warp-speed-to-battle-climate-change/
What about the Wal van Lierop nuclear fission? Van Lierop mentions nuclear fusion research, but like most greens, he completely ignores fission.
We know nuclear fission works. France decarbonised its economy in the 1970s by replacing most of its fossil fuel facilities with nuclear power plants. They still get around 75% of their electricity from nuclear power plants.
Instead of imposing permanent Covid-19-style climate bans, the whole world could copy what France did in the 1970s. In just a decade we could reduce anthropogenic CO2 emissions by at least 30% without compromising lifestyle.
But for some reason, hardline greens like van Lierop would apparently rather have us locked up in our homes and cities like sheep in stables than promote a viable zero-carbon option that allows us to stick with our current lifestyle.
4.8
5
be right
Item rating
Like this:
Loading…
Comments are closed.