| No clue where this saying comes from originally, but I picked it up from my step-mom, who got it from her Norwegian grandmother Johanna, who came to America when she was 14. Sometimes I try to imagine what her life must have been like as a teenage homesteader in a very, very cold part of Eastern Montana. To me "If Wishes Were Horses, Then Beggars Would Ride" means: just because you want something doesn’t mean you are going to get it. I think there is a lot of wishful thinking going on out here when it comes to climate change. I hear: “Climate change? No, I’m not really worried. They’ll figure it out.” Guess what? “They” — meaning the smartest scientists we’ve got — have figured it out. And they’ve told us what we need to do… |  |
| We have to quickly phase out fossil fuel use worldwide, starting now & completely ending carbon pollution by about 2050. Scientists and economists have also spelled out — in enormous detail — plenty of ways the world can do this affordably using existing technology. Some people don’t like that answer, though. They want a different answer. Mostly one that doesn’t require them to change their lifestyle or think about unpleasant things. We are American and we want an invention, damn it! I would never write off the possibility that some genius roaming this earth could come up with something we can’t even imagine right now to save us from harmful impacts caused by hundreds of years worth of carbon pollution. In fact, I want it real bad. But I don’t want to count on it. Because breakthroughs can’t be wished into being. Breakthroughs aren’t always there right when you want them. We have a deadline & large changes need to happen in the next 15 years. Scientists have already spent at least 15 years trying to both: 1) come up with ways to get large amounts of CO2 out of the air or 2) burn fossil fuels without adding CO2 to the atmosphere. No great, workable solutions yet or I wouldn’t be writing this, I’d be at the beach. A few examples to get you thinking…Seven years ago, Virgin Atlantic founder & billionaire Richard Branson offered a $25 million prize to anyone who could remove 1 billion tons of CO2 a year from the atmosphere. Kind of a lame offer considering the value of such an achievement, but I’m sure someone would be happy to have it. Not so easy — prize is still sitting there with no winner. And we actually need to remove a lot more than 1 billion tons of CO2 per year. We’re adding close to 40 billion tons of CO2 per year now & have been at this carbon pollution thing for centuries. Maybe you’ve heard of carbon capture and storage? The idea that at power plants burning fossil fuels we could capture CO2 before it enters the air and store that CO2 — perhaps underground? Scientists have been working at this for 25+ years. Construction on world’s first two commercial plants using this technology are supposed to be finished this year. If all goes well, the International Energy Agency thinks Carbon Capture & Storage could contribute about 14% of the reductions in emissions we need between now and 2050. Not exactly a free pass… Another 15 years of trying doesn’t guarantee better results. Let’s end with a game of “if…” You’ve probably noticed by now that I love this game. Play along: If a doctor told you that you had to quit smoking or get lung cancer, would you say “No, I don’t want to bother with that, you’ll come up with a different solution by the time I get cancer?” If you made that choice a few years ago, and got diagnosed with lung cancer today, do you think doctors would have a cure for you? Nope. You knew the punchline already: scientists haven’t come up with another cure for lung cancer, other than prevention. Until we get another cure for climate change, we need to choose prevention here too. |
