Wordout

350 Is The Upper Limit
"If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted... CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm."
Jim Hansen, NASA

Print This Post

Something To Look Forward To

Image via WikipediaShifting The Center

There will be new jobs. And if I don’t miss, my guess is there will be lots of them. And I think the folks who get those jobs are lucky people, because I think those jobs will be fun.

The universe seems to constantly carry on a sublime balancing act. But since what it’s balancing is life, a force that never sits still, it has to constantly shift its center, its fulcrum, to correct for the movements life creates.

This constant movement of the center makes things seem very unstable sometimes, but it’s good to remember that it’s a natural thing.

Think of a pendulum. It will swing exactly as far to one side as the other if no other force is acting on it.

Using The Force

This mess will all balance out. Soon we will all be talking about the next global crisis, which is the real one… the climate crisis.

Everyone knows that the best way to fight the climate crisis is to eliminate our production of greenhouse gases. It will be exactly that which will propel the next financial boom around the world.

Green technology investment has not slowed during this financial crisis and in fact is expected to grow 20% next year. It will emerge as one of the leading industries of our future.

Even China, the nation everybody points to as the biggest problem (after US), seems to be re-thinking its stance on coal as an energy source. As reported by ClimateProgress and ChinaDaily China has halted all but two of its Coal-to-Liquids projects.

In a notice posted on its website on September 4, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said that, apart from two projects operated by the Shenhua Group, none could go ahead before receiving official approval, because CTL is “a technology-, talent- and capital-intensive project at an experimental stage with high business risks.”

All those people and all of us as well are still going to need that energy. And we will get it. We just won’t be getting it from the places we have been for the past couple of centuries.

The New Normal

It’s obvious that things are going to change a bit. But things will also stay the same. We’ll have some really rough times for awhile, and then things will get slightly better – you’ll feel normal again. And then a bit better yet until pretty soon, you’re bored on your drive to work.

But even that will be a little different. Here’s what Ian Kennedy(everwas.com), who leaves Yahoo this week for a new job at Nokia, says about the future of your ride to work.

Imagine this use case. Your phone knows your alarm goes off at 6am every morning, that you drive the San Mateo bridge every weekday on your way to work at around 7:30am. It’s entirely possible for your phone to automatically check traffic conditions before you leave sometime after you awake and let you know that there is heavier than normal traffic and suggest an alternate route and read it out to you in a phone call, while you drive. If you’ve got your calendar in there, there is no reason that your phone can’t offer to call ahead and let the people in your first meeting know that you’re running late. All the pieces are in place to make this happen, automatically, right on your device. That’s the kind of service that will enhance your life, that’s the kind of service suite I’m excited to build.

.
.

I am Jon, and I think that’s something to look forward to.