this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2024
36 points (75.0% liked)
Climate - truthful information about climate, related activism and politics.
5223 readers
568 users here now
Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.
As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades:
How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world:
Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:
Anti-science, inactivism, and unsupported conspiracy theories are not ok here.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It's about the term of investment, since these massive projects take decades and most private investment can't afford to think that far in the long term.
If it was all about profit-making, coal, oil and gas get you way better return on investment than renewables (25% compared to 5-6%), even if in the long term it is harmful (increased healthcare spending treating cancer and environmental damage), and an unsustainable model.
As for why the US government needs to pay the private sector to do a job it could just do itself? Well that's for Americans to answer, but what I see is a lot of waving hands around nebulous "efficiencies".