I honestly think that just the damage that’s been done to climate change initiatives might be enough. We had a ton of steam going in to 2025, and this year has set us back by decades. I’m afraid that having such a prominent producer of GHG and pollution pull away so sharply will have knock on effects to other countries. After all, if the US doesn’t play ball, why should a smaller industrial country try to be cleaner?
Hopefully there’s still willpower and (more importantly) time to fix our shit before people start dying en masse. I kind of have my doubts at this point though. I’m pretty sure we will only start to truly prioritize it once it has a large impact on daily life, and that point will be far too late.
Interestingly, China might be a positive factor there, sort of? They seem to be aiming heavily for renewables, probably as much for economic as for climate change reasons. But with the way slightly more cleared for them to even more heavily reach out to developing countries, they might opt to invest in green energy in those developing countries. Undoubtedly to their own economic gain, again. But the net effect of China on global energy might be positive (good) from a purely greenhouse gas perspective.
Yeah, it’s really weird to look to china as a saving grace on anything, but I think you’re right. They’ve been going all in on renewables in the way that we should be. Hopefully that’ll drive prices down even further.
I also think that with their huge stakes in industrializing countries in Africa, many newly industrialized regions may just skip over the headache of transitioning off petroleum altogether.
I honestly think that just the damage that’s been done to climate change initiatives might be enough. We had a ton of steam going in to 2025, and this year has set us back by decades. I’m afraid that having such a prominent producer of GHG and pollution pull away so sharply will have knock on effects to other countries. After all, if the US doesn’t play ball, why should a smaller industrial country try to be cleaner?
Hopefully there’s still willpower and (more importantly) time to fix our shit before people start dying en masse. I kind of have my doubts at this point though. I’m pretty sure we will only start to truly prioritize it once it has a large impact on daily life, and that point will be far too late.
Preface: I am not pro-China by any means.
Interestingly, China might be a positive factor there, sort of? They seem to be aiming heavily for renewables, probably as much for economic as for climate change reasons. But with the way slightly more cleared for them to even more heavily reach out to developing countries, they might opt to invest in green energy in those developing countries. Undoubtedly to their own economic gain, again. But the net effect of China on global energy might be positive (good) from a purely greenhouse gas perspective.
Yeah, it’s really weird to look to china as a saving grace on anything, but I think you’re right. They’ve been going all in on renewables in the way that we should be. Hopefully that’ll drive prices down even further.
I also think that with their huge stakes in industrializing countries in Africa, many newly industrialized regions may just skip over the headache of transitioning off petroleum altogether.
Fingers crossed that china keeps pushing!