Dave Roberts | Is Climate Change an Existential Threat? Ep.88

One barrel of oil equals the manual labor energy of one human for five years.  This fact explains why humans are strapped to fossil fuels: entire economies and lifestyles are based on the easy availability of fossil fuels.  Humans don’t yet know how to live off of the Earth’s “energy budget” – fueled by the sun. We’re emitting more CO2 than at any time before.  What is the barrier to slowing this down?  Politics, and the difficulty humans have with change.  But change is afoot and hope is alive.David Roberts is editor-at-large at Canary Media.  He writes about clean energy and politics at his newsletter, Volts.  Previously, he covered the same subjects for five years at Vox, and before that for 10 years at Grist. Today on Clean Power Hour, David joins Tim to discuss the progress made on technologies that extract carbon out of the atmosphere, make the clean energy we need to sustain us and store the extra.  David presents the three very attainable goals that will bring us most of the way to the solution.  Listen in for a veritable “clinic” on established clean energy technologies in place now and those in reengineering stage, like hydrogen, thermal, concentrated solar and more.  As David states, many solutions are surprisingly basic and simple.Key TakeawaysHow the global action humans have taken, while painfully slow, will likely save us from the most extreme outcomes previously considered possibleThe rare jewel that is a climate science expert who speaks in plain languageHow Nate Hagen’s quote, “Things are getting worse and worse and better and better, faster and faster” sums up human’s very slow adoption of climate solutionsThe three changes we can make that will solve 75% of the problemDavid’s take on why now is the most amazing time to be finding solutions in energy storageOutside wind and solar, how non-intermittent solutions such as geothermal, smaller hydro, lithium-ion batteries, meltdown-proof nuclear and thermal energy are having a moment How the ecological principle of “carrying capacity” explains the problem humans have caused on EarthWhat concentrated solar is, and how it’s a great example of replacing materials with intelligenceHow one simple but clever insight waiting to be uncovered could be the answerConnect with DaveD Support the showConnect with Tim Clean Power Hour Clean Power Hour on YouTubeTim on TwitterTim on LinkedIn Email [email protected] Review Clean Power Hour on Apple PodcastsThe Clean Power Hour is produced by the Clean Power Consulting Group and created by Tim Montague. Contact us by email: [email protected] Corporate sponsors who share our mission to speed the energy transition are invited to check out https://www.cleanpowerhour.com/support/The Clean Power Hour is brought to you by CPS America, maker of North America’s number one 3-phase string inverter, with over 6GW shipped in the US. With a focus on commercial and utility-scale solar and energy storage, the company partners with customers to provide unparalleled performance and service. The CPS America product lineup includes 3-phase string inverters from 25kW to 275kW, exceptional data communication and controls, and energy storage solutions designed for seamless integration with CPS America systems. Learn more at www.chintpowersystems.com

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