A Massive War on Global Warming

I. A Massive War on Global Warming
"Since the start of the Industrial Revolution the U.S. has dumped more than 500 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere and an additional 10 billion tons are accumulated each year. Renewals are a major way out of this problem, especially  wind power -- offshore wind being the most promising. This means that broad-based efforts to build solar and wind infrastructure, along with a commitment to replace much of the world's fossil fuels with electricity, would go petty far toward reducing global carbon emissions. How far? Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates that by 2050, wind and solar can satisfy 80 percent of electricity demand in most advanced countries." [1]

"Only about half of Americans are willing to pay $1 per month to fight climate change. Only about a quarter are willing to pay $10 a month. And a paltry 16 percent  said they'd be willing to pay a climate tax of $8-$40 per month."

"The International Energy Agency estimates that the world spends about $22 billion per year on clean energy innovation. The U.S.share of that is $7 billion --that's about 0.03 percent of the U.S. economy. We built an enormous war machine: 89,000 tanks, 300,000 aircraft, 1,200 navy combat ships, 4,500 landing craft, 2.7 million machine guns, and 42.6 trillion worth of munitions in today's dollars."

II. Only Science Can Save Us
"Over the past 40 years, the price of delivering one watt of solar power has dropped from about $100 to $1. In the last 10 years, the United States has committed $678 million to new nuclear technologies, and boosting this amount could produce commercial reactors virtually immune to meltdowns within a few years." [2]

"According to the International Energy Agency, governments around the world set aside $28 billion for carbon capture projects over the past decade; but spent only $4 billion. We've given up when we should be doubling down. The Energy Future Initiative, a think tank, recommends that the United States commit $120.7 billion over the next 10 years for carbon capture R & D."

III. The Global Warming Effect on Plant Quality
"Of all the insults that greenhouse gases hurl at our food supply -- a warming climate that triggers more severe droughts and floods in key agriculture regions like the Midwest and California, declining yields of staple crops -- the most insidious may involve the deterioration of the nutritional quality of plants we eat. Rather than sound the alarm about the deterioration of a crucial stable crop, the USDA declined to publicize it and tried to convince the University of Washington not to do either, as Politico's Helena Bottewiller Evich reported in June. In Trump's USDA, there's an 'implicit directive not to promote agriculture research related to climate change.' " [3]

Footnotes:
[1] Kevin Drum, "We Need a Massive War Effort," Mother Jones, January/February 2020.

[2] Kevin Drum, "Only Science Can Save Us," Mother Jones, January/February 2020.

[3] Tom Philpott, "The Fault," Mother Jones,  January/February 2020.