Great tweetstorm by Ramez Naam, via Marginal Revolution. Naam is a former Microsoft exec and (apparently) climate change policy guru.
Here are my takeaways:
- Global scope. Climate change policy needs to have global scope. It’s not sufficient to act locally. The U.S. is just 15% of emissions.
- Solutions need to be cheap. Renewable sources of energy must be cheap or they won’t be used. Subsidize new green technology.
- Agricultural / manufacturing. The biggest problems are agriculture and manufacturing. We are not making progress in these areas despite them being responsible for 45% of emissions.
- Meat consumption, ugh. “Meat consumption is doubling in the next 40 years. This should scare you more than coal.”
So… cut back on your meat intake. Really, that’s best for you and everyone else. Also, we need massive subsidies for new, cheap technology in meat, steel, and cement production.