Quote from: TDoS on Jan 03, 2024, 06:03 PMDo you believe that there are goals, i.e. plans to do something about carbon emissions that aren't hopium?

It's definitely a goal, it's what lecture halls full of scientists tell us is necessary if we are to prevent catastrophic climate change after COP conferences.  Greta Thunberg says it too, so it must be true. lol.   Whether this is an achievable goal is an open question.  It seems unlikely to succeed in the time frame they set out, but doing something is better than doing nothing.

QuoteDo you believe there is any effective action operating at scale based on all the plans that, say, the COP folks have been discussing over the years?

Generally they don't specify actions, just set goal dates by which time we're supposed to stop burning fossil fuels.  At the rate that is happening, those dates won't be met.  I don't think there is any way to achieve those dates and maintain the per capita energy expenditure we currently use.  However, the more alternative energy sources we develop, the better off we'll be.

QuoteSo...if this were an answer to my prior question, would this be a yes...a no...or a maybe?

What question? Can you buy alternatives on a cost competitive basis?  Obviously not, if you could there wouldn't be a problem.  All alternatives are still in development at one stage or another.  There's no real consensus on what is best to pursue, and different people and corporations jockey for investment capital.

Now, assuming we avoid having a catastrophic war and we don't have a global famine or plague in the next 50 years, it's likely that some alternatives will exist for some percentage of the population for some period of time.  What percentage and how wide the distribution and what the alternatives are all are open questions.  You can follow the age old wisdom: hope for the best and plan for the worst.

RE