Energy Mix in 2050
Climate change is the greatest example of market failure we have ever seen.
- NICHOLAS STERN, FORMER WORLD BANK CHIEF ECONOMIST
Today, our world is headed towards a crisis where a booming population is faced with imminent threats of global warming, including rising seas, extreme weather conditions, and environmental disasters, as Hurricane Sandy recently evidenced. Once lush lands are drained dry of life from water scarcity and droughts. If there is water, much of it can be filled with chemicals and sickly toxins (e.g., mercury, lead, and cadmium) from billowing industries and factories. In China, 78 percent of the water from its rivers is not fit for human consumption, and in India, 70 percent of the water is polluted. These externalities brought by globalization are wrecking havoc in our natural habitat. This paper shows what we are doing, can do and will to thwart or repair the damage. It analyzes current and historical trends to show that this world is on a path towards a more sustainable 2050, but it also recognizes that more needs to be done to ensure eco-longevity. These patterns reveal that we will fight climate change, but how quickly we do it is another question, and this paper offers recommendations. As writer Matt Ridley argues in The Rational Optimist, the world can “pull out of the current crisis because of the way that markets in goods, services and ideas allow human beings to exchange and specialize honestly for the betterment of all.” Thus, we will get out of the crisis, but we also cannot cure it by simply relying on Ridley’s assumption that “market” forces will save us. Instead, we must analyze the trends, be creative and take action in beating this sustainability crisis at an accelerated rate.
This essay is organized into eight parts. First, it describes the planet’s landscape in 2050 if we continue with business as usual and do not tackle climate change. The second part discusses how the world is not headed to a “business as usual”
- NICHOLAS STERN, FORMER WORLD BANK CHIEF ECONOMIST
Today, our world is headed towards a crisis where a booming population is faced with imminent threats of global warming, including rising seas, extreme weather conditions, and environmental disasters, as Hurricane Sandy recently evidenced. Once lush lands are drained dry of life from water scarcity and droughts. If there is water, much of it can be filled with chemicals and sickly toxins (e.g., mercury, lead, and cadmium) from billowing industries and factories. In China, 78 percent of the water from its rivers is not fit for human consumption, and in India, 70 percent of the water is polluted. These externalities brought by globalization are wrecking havoc in our natural habitat. This paper shows what we are doing, can do and will to thwart or repair the damage. It analyzes current and historical trends to show that this world is on a path towards a more sustainable 2050, but it also recognizes that more needs to be done to ensure eco-longevity. These patterns reveal that we will fight climate change, but how quickly we do it is another question, and this paper offers recommendations. As writer Matt Ridley argues in The Rational Optimist, the world can “pull out of the current crisis because of the way that markets in goods, services and ideas allow human beings to exchange and specialize honestly for the betterment of all.” Thus, we will get out of the crisis, but we also cannot cure it by simply relying on Ridley’s assumption that “market” forces will save us. Instead, we must analyze the trends, be creative and take action in beating this sustainability crisis at an accelerated rate.
This essay is organized into eight parts. First, it describes the planet’s landscape in 2050 if we continue with business as usual and do not tackle climate change. The second part discusses how the world is not headed to a “business as usual”
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