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America proposal to go all-renewable

America proposal to go all-renewable

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Originally posted by DeepThought
Economic booms produce more carbon emissions.
Do you have any evidence for this, or a reference? Everything I've heard is that pollution and emissions increase during recessions as the cheaper options are chosen and corners are cut.
No, he is correct that [until possibly VERY recently] carbon emissions were linked to economic growth.

A [big enough] recession reduces CO2 emissions.

However this is because we use less energy in a recession and as that energy comes from
fossil fuel burning we emit less CO2.
As we move more and more to sustainable non-CO2 emitting power generation this will cease
to be the case.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/12/08/global_warming_co2_emission_dropped_globally_in_2015.html

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Originally posted by googlefudge
No, he is correct that [until possibly VERY recently] carbon emissions were linked to economic growth.

A [big enough] recession reduces CO2 emissions.

However this is because we use less energy in a recession and as that energy comes from
fossil fuel burning we emit less CO2.
As we move more and more to sustainable non-CO2 emitting power ...[text shortened]... ate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/12/08/global_warming_co2_emission_dropped_globally_in_2015.html
That link provides great news! -albeit with the global warming problem remaining very far from solved.
So, we probably have already reached or at least almost reached peek global CO2 emissions rate and, not only that the world economy has actual grown slightly as our CO2 emissions, thanks to renewables, have gone down slightly! -proof that we don't need to increase CO2 emissions to have economic growth! And surely strong empirical evidence, as if any where needed (simple logic alone should suffice but that is apparently not good enough for same people here ), that it must be possible to have an economic boom while reducing our CO2 emissions.

whodey: you should read that link. You might learn something, if you are willing.


Originally posted by humy
So, we probably have already reached or at least almost reached peek global CO2 emissions rate .....
Keeping firmly in mind of course that 'emissions rate' is not the same thing as 'total C02 in the atmosphere' - that is still climbing.