Doomsday or Opportunity?

Take a look at this chart from NASA. Video: Climate Spiral (1880-2022) – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet (nasa.gov) Watching this spiral develop reminds me of an episode from Star Trek called the Doomsday Machine. The thought of that and what this chart represents runs chills up my spine. It is clear that somewhere around the late 1970's and early 1980's the planet turned a corner and began to accelerate in increasing global temperatures.

Who is most responsible for the heating of the earth? The Greatest Generation? The Baby Boomers? The Millennials? The Greatest Generation saw a blip in the global temperature around WWII but the temperatures rebounded back lower afterwards. The Millennials, by definition, came of age at the turn of the century and into the 2010s, when warming was already well underway. It doesn't seem we can lay responsibility at their feet. It seems quite obvious the responsibility points to the Baby Boom generation, with global warming starting when many of us were getting into our first automobiles. The Baby Boom generation did not take action when NASA's scientist, James Hansen, warned in 1989 of the perils of continued CO2 emissions.

I am a member of the Baby Boom generation and seeing this and realizing I am leaving a much hotter planet to my grandchildren is a sober thing. It is especially sober in the knowledge that we were warned and still did very little. I think most of us would move heaven and earth to make life easier for our children and grandchildren. If so, then perhaps it is our responsibility to do something now, but I am happy to say, we do not have to move heaven and earth.

Focusing on Energy Independence is a major part of one's reduction in their carbon footprint, and this can be done providing significant savings that pay for the very energy technologies that help achieve it. In fact, in our book, Energy Independence: The Individual Pursuit of Energy Freedom - 1st Ed (routledge.com), we outline a plan that funds the energy technologies through an ever increasing stream of energy cost savings reinvested in the household, such that, in 6 - 8 years, energy independence and near carbon neutrality is achieved. And the truly great thing is that it should result in $600 - $800 per month ($7200 - $9600 annually) in energy cost savings.

Even so, I look around and see that a majority still do not embrace any sense of urgency to take action even to invest in energy cost savings in the home, because the technologies are not yet self evident everywhere, although, there are a lot more EVs on the roads (about one in ten in the Atlanta suburbs). Vehicular transportation is about 1/3 of a family's carbon footprint and going EV is a good start. However, a more systematic approach, like the one we lay out in Energy Independence, would include solar PV systems on the roof as well as energy efficiency in the home. There is barely one in one thousand homes that have gone solar in Georgia.

I think of our generation. What kind of legacy do we want to leave the world, our children and grandchildren? What do we want the history books to say about us? It only took the Greatest Generation four years to cement itself as the greatest. Surely, we can spare six to eight years to make a difference. By my calculation Baby Boomers still have 15 to 25 years in average life expectancy. There is still time and opportunity to take action and then sit back and reap the energy savings reward.