[Graeme]

World can halt fossil fuel use by 2090

The world could eliminate fossil fuel use by 2090, saving $18 trillion in future fuel costs and creating a $360 billion industry that provides half of the world's electricity, the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) and environmental group Greenpeace said on Monday.

The 210-page study [pdf] is one of few reports – even by lobby groups – to look in detail at how energy use would have to be overhauled to meet the toughest scenarios for curbing greenhouse gases outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Solar power, biomass such as biofuels or wood, geothermal energy and wind could be the leading energies by 2090 in a shift from fossil fuels blamed by the IPCC for stoking global warming.

The report urged measures such as a phase-out of subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear energy, "cap and trade" systems for greenhouse gas emissions, legally binging targets for renewable energies and tough efficiency standards for buildings and vehicles.

newscientist

[emersonbiggins]

Hey, who said Europeans aren't realistic?

[Daniel_Plainview]

World can halt fossil fuel use by 2090

I've marked my calendar for October, 2090.

[Tanada]

Hey, who said Europeans aren't realistic?

Hee

Hee hee

hee hee haw

chortle snort ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[eastbay]

We need a 'Comedy Section'.

[mos6507]

Fossil fuel use will stop alright, because all the humans will be dead.

[Tanada]

We need a 'Comedy Section'.

The worste part of this IMO is that these 'experts' think that the conditions during the little ice age 250 years ago were preferable to climate conditions as they are today.

How soon we forget, as a species, the nature is not our friend. Freeze you, burn you, starve you, dehydrate you....that is what nature does. You have to actively seek out food, water, refuge, warmth, or you will surely die at a young age.

[eastbay]

Fossil fuel use will stop alright, because all the humans will be dead.

Maybe most humans now alive will be dead by 2090, and that's a fact.

The few replacement humans will be chasing after lightning bolts in search of fire by 2090.

[Graeme]

The full report can be downloaded here.

[Sys1]

I'm more worried about an anagram of 2090, I call it 2009. By the way, what about 2900?

[Cabrone]

50 years too late IMO.

N.Pole shrinking rapidly, scientists seriously talking about 50GT Methane burps, approx 20% of Amazon already chopped down with no signs of a slowdown, oceans fished to within an inch of their lives, economies saddled with trillion$ of debt, fossil fuels running down, 6.5 billion people and rising by the day etc etc etc......

Enjoy the last years of this version of reality because it's over.

[Tyler_JC]

Everyone realizes that even if we cap carbon emissions at today's levels, we'd still experience irreversible, runaway climate change by the middle part of this century?

We're not going to cap carbon emissions at today's levels. We're not going to cap them at any level. We will burn every damn piece of coal, wood, oil, gas, kittens, EVERYTHING.

We should be focusing on how to adapt to a changing climate rather than stopping it from changing.

[Twilight]

We should be focusing on how to adapt to a changing climate rather than stopping it from changing.

I would rather do that with my own resources than have the same money taken to (just possibly) improve the life of someone living generations after I am buried. A lot of this stuff is simply justification for a "feel-good" tax, more of which will be spent funding today's pork than investing for the future.