What if we stopped pretending the climate apocalypse can be stopped?
The problem with climate change is that it has now solidly left the realm of the scientific to enter politics.<p>Here’s the truth:<p>We cannot do a thing about it.<p>This is scientific fact, not my opinion.  I invite everyone to reproduce my conclusion.  Here’s how to do it:<p>Question:<p>How long would it take for a 100 ppm drop in atmospheric CO2 concentration if humanity, along with all of our technology, evaporated from this planet tomorrow?<p>In other words, a Thanos moment.  A snap of the fingers and humanity is gone in an instant.<p>Why this question?<p>Because that’s the baseline.  This is important:<p>WE CANNOT DO BETTER THAN THIS RATE IF CHANGE.<p>Can we answer that question?<p>Yes!<p>We have 800,000 years of highly accurate atmospheric composition data from ice core sampling.  In other words, we have a time machine that tells us exactly how the planet would behave if we were not here.<p>What does the data say?  How does it answer my question?<p>50,000 to 75,000 years for a 100 ppm drop in atmospheric CO2 concentration if we evaporated from this planet.<p>THAT IS THE BASELINE<p>Any proposal for “saving the planet” has to be measured against that.<p>For example:  Erase the US from the planet -&gt; Save the planet in 50 years?  Nope, ridiculous.<p>Ban all forms if internal combustion engines?  Nope. Ridiculous.<p>Switch to 100% renewable energy at a world scale?  Nope.  Again, ridiculous.<p>All of these are ridiculous because the next question should be:  How is this going to perform a THOUSAND TIMES BETTER than the Thanos scenario?<p>The answer, at that point, becomes beyond obvious: These ideas are ridiculous.<p>As for what would work, well, that’s a whole other conversation that starts with reforestation at a monumental scale.