Climate Fixes Already Exist

NOTE: I have to admit a bit of prejudice in this article by Ms. Solnit but I will suppress that here.

Ms. Solnit states that "Tech barons are forever predicting some amazing new technology to fix the climate crisis. Yet fixes already exist" and this is far from new to me -- not only in my field of endeavor, but in other fields as well.

For example: in the field of oil spill cleanup, I have seen highly effective organic solutions that were available decades ago that were never widely used and I will politely refrain from reminiscing over the number of fuel-saving, and hence, climate-saving, technologies that have been shelved over the last 50 decades or the ultrasonic washing machine that needed no soap or the... Get the idea?

I am reminded of a movie by the great Mr. Peter Sellers wherein he played an inventor of a new cloth that never needed washing as it would always remain clean. The last scene in the movie was Mr. Seller's character walking away from the camera in his bright, clean clothes giving up on getting them marketed.

As Ms. Solnit states: "We have the lifeboats now – we have the solutions, and we have had them for a while, and they keep getting better, as in better-designed, more efficient, more affordable and adaptable. We just need to implement them, but they’re just not the solutions a lot of {people} like."

I Agree

For example, I know of a government-verified solution to avoid CO2 emissions at a rate of 500 times what an electric vehicle can do -- at the same cost. Yet the attention it gets is basically zero from those who claim they want to, and have the resources to, do something about the existing 'climate emergency'.

Ms. Solnit also states that "Scientists and engineers have been telling us for a very long time what we need to do and how to do it, and most of us already know that what we need to do is make a swift transition away from burning fossil fuels."

Yet... the EXPENSE

I am no genius, but I can see that what Ms. Solint recommends is a VERY EXPENSIVE route to take. Not only for the vehicle manufacturing and distributions but for the electrical generation and distribution as well as the necessary environmental damage to put all of that into place.

Considering the above solution, it seems that the expense and environmental damage could be set aside for a more resilient future while we get the job of healing our Earth done at a quicker pace.

#adb #asiandevelopmentbank #adbtransport #investing #alternativeenergy #energy #environment #climatechange #netzero #climate #climateaction #climatecrisis #environmental #co2 #carbonfootprint #diesel #pollutioncontrol #carbonreduction #csr #transportation #decarbonization #biodiversity #fleet #mobility #transport #transportation #supplychain #sustainablesupplychain #earthday #earthday2024 #earthdayevents #climateactionph #OGPinas #londonclimateactionweek #TheEarthShotPrize #EarthShotPrize #environmentfinance #natureconservation #ndcs #sdg #slcp