In Summer 2009, President Obama spearheaded a promise made by the G8 to cut 80% of their carbon emissions by 2050. The pact is broad in its scope, ambitious in its promises, but most of all, it is attainable given the right course of action. Cutting carbon emissions by 80% while still running vital industries such as mining and high-tech production requires that the two largest sources of carbon emissions in our country - electricity and automobile - are not halved or quartered. They must be eliminated.
A proper long-term plan to cut emissions will sacrifice short-term solutions with glaring holes, including focuses on raising fuel economy and developing (relatively) low-scale power solutions (I'm looking at you, wind/hydro/solar/geotherm). These steps will be akin to continually halving the distance between your current point and your destination - you will never reach your goal. Instead, development must be focused on implementing long-term, near-zero carbon sources. In the case of automobiles, we have real technology that is not yet ready for a massive scale. In the case of energy, we have a readily available zero carbon solution that has been in use for over 40 years in America, is abundant, safe and reliable, and has already been incorporated into other major nations' energy budgets. We must go nuclear.
Maniates presents the problem but does little to offer a solution of how to solve it. To see a well thought out analysis of how to attack the problem by an engineer (as well as a strangely similar analysis of the fatal flaw in our current energy analysis), look to the July-August edition of Scientific American.
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