Climate change update: Technological good news vs. political bad news

August seems like an appropriate month for a climate catastrophe update. The bad news is obvious, especially the Trump Administration's methodical, government-wide, and complete abandonment of all efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These include or will include ending critical data collection by NOAA and NASA, eliminating USG financial support for any academic or private sector climate R&D, and actively trying to sabotage international efforts to work the problem.

Most of the world's other nations are not doing nearly enough, either. They need to be making a lot of major changes to our energy systems, as this summary of the grim 10 key findings of the latest (2023) IPCC study explain. The planet is already 2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than pre-industrial levels, and the worst-case scenario is to be a catastrophic 6-10 degrees Fahrenheit above by 2100!

So, what's the good news? As link three discusses, enough key technological advances have been made already that the green energy revolution is here - now. The obstacles are still huge. The cost to build out a planet-wide new energy system is vast. There are big technical bottlenecks (like the rare earth dearth). And, of course, gigantic political obstacles won't go away - notably unshakable denial from American conservatives, political influence of the fossil fuel industry, the AI industry's insatiable need for electricity, and many more.

We did climate last May. But if WADG doesn't discuss the world's most urgent problem at least once a year, what's the point? The week before our 8/10 mtg, look back here for some optional background readings.

Optional background for August climate mtg.

• TBA. For now, consider the IPCC summary, above.
• ...and this key point: Why this is history's worst and hardest to solve environmental problem. And...
• The battery revolution means the internal combustion engine's dominance is ending. Fascinating.