The efficiency initiative has begun.

One recalls when reading about, say, Australia, that the primary Establishment initiative in climate change mitigation (since the Rio Summit, in 1992), was "climate change mitigation through greater efficiency." Camila Moreno, Lili Fuhr, and Daniel Speich Chassé, in their paper "Beyond Paris: avoiding the trap of carbon metrics," suggest that the current emphasis upon "reducing carbon emissions" through greater efficiency is broadly insufficient to its self-assigned task because it doesn't address causes. (And that's why "carbon emissions" never go down except locally.) Here's what they say:

At the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, a ‘silver bullet’ was found to tackle climate change: reducing CO2 emissions. Accordingly, the goal was to make cars and household appliances, power plants and entire industries more efficient. This ‘end of pipe’ approach (by which contaminants are removed at the end of a process) deflected political attention away from the causes of climate change and allowed policy makers to deal only with the symptoms in the form of emissions.

Well in Australia, that annoying country where they have gun control, the Prime Minister has announced a $2 billion fund to deal with climate change. Here's what the plan will fund:

The Climate Solutions Fund is an extension of former prime minister Tony Abbott's Emissions Reduction Fund.
Key points:

Program to include funds for land revegetation, reducing bushfire risk and replacing lighting and refrigeration systems
The policy is an extension of former PM Tony Abbott's Emissions Reduction Fund
Senior Liberals had flagged the need for new climate policies ahead of the expected election in May

The 10-year program will provide funding for farmers, businesses and local governments for projects such as revegetating land, reducing bushfire risk and replacing lighting and refrigeration systems.

It won't do anything effective to mitigate climate change, but hey, they still talk about climate change over there, right?

*****

As far as I can tell, there are two Establishment positions on climate change. 1) show that "it's not that bad," which is what Trump is trying to do, and 2) "let's do something ineffective about it," which is what Scott Morrison is trying to do. 1) looks like failure now and 2) looks like the Establishment default strategy, which will look like failure later.

Real climate change mitigation policy will look like some kind of revolution, mainly of the food politics and education varieties, but with an added component in which the fossil fuel industry is forced out of business. That's what will happen. Sure, we're not there yet.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

...because it doesn't help:

It is my view that certain global events and activities suggest that most alert people and governments are aware that global warming has passed the point of no return long ago and all efforts at abatement within our current technology exist solely to neutralize global panic.

I support all programs that people can participate in to mitigate global warming as both socially constructive and therapeutic. I am committed to propping up the public's belief in and commitment to these programs.

On a related note, I will say that the US attempt to retard China's intellectual and technological development is a suicidal move. The Chinese are the last hope and the only culture with the disciplined capability of reaching beyond existing technology for a reality-altering, non-capitalist solution before time runs out.

See also, Chris Hedges On Contact: Climate emergency with Dahr Jamail

Or, one can watch it here:

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

@Pluto's Republic on global dimming. We're f@ckd.
My theory on this is the same as yours-basically they're drill baby drilling to spew More particulates into the atmosphere to Increase global dimming regardless of co2 emissions. Once those particulates stop going up, we're Roasted in the classic sense.
Six weeks from that point is All we'll have. No way out.

On a side note, I have Personally witnessed three different occasions of aircraft At Low Altitude(less than ten k feet) discharging Something into the atmosphere, I know not what. I have video of one of the occurrences either using two aircraft, or the same aircraft making two passes.
Freaky shit.

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

Cassiodorus's picture

@Pluto's Republic and they describe it in their book "The Collapse of Western Civilization." China will make it. The historical record isn't promising for China though. Mao didn't understand ecology, and so Chinese history today has this disaster called the "Great Leap Forward," which merely contributed to the concurring "Great Chinese Famine." Xi Jinping doesn't seem to understand ecology either.

My vote goes with the Zapatistas. They will make it because they know what to do.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

earthling1's picture

@Cassiodorus
We may all be living that life, or those of us that survive.
I'm reminded of someone saying ( iirc Einstein ): World War IV will be fought with sticks.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Pluto's Republic's picture

@Cassiodorus

...is in the sheer scale of it. And it's reliance upon a heretofore unknown technology that can quantum transport the sun's heat from the planet. I think they understand natural ecology systems quite well. They wrote the first book on it 5,000 years ago. Mao was a freakish disruption in the oldest continuous civilization on the planet. They were right to close their doors on the World for a time. In this case, I am interested in their genetically superior physics insights. Their farming and food storage, not so much.

In any event, it's a long shot. I just have a hunch.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Alligator Ed's picture

@Pluto's Republic Clean coal (a superb oxymoron). What will transfer the excess heat away from the planet? Whatever it is, it doesn't seem to be working.

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