Sami Grover @ TreeHugger suggests that the incremental strategy for decarbonisation is in the process of being discarded – in favor of the whole enchilada:
[A] new kind of environmental action is emerging, one that is not afraid to champion all-out, systemic change. It’s happening on many fronts:
• Engineers are mapping out roadmaps to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050.
• Utilities are committing to complete decarbonization, and reshaping their business models around renewables.
• Authorities are planning to “make cars in cities pointless.”
• Mainstream builders are building homes with 90 percent lower heating bills, largely out of straw, at a comparable cost to conventional homes.
• Apple is buying up forests the size of San Francisco to promote sustainable forestry.
So are we really making that great of progress? Are the renewables really ready for this kind of pressure? Granted, it’s good to see corporations swing into action:
“A 100 percent goal is easier than 90 percent, or 50 percent. Because when you go for 90 percent, everyone in the company always finds a way to be in the 10 percent.”
-Steven Howard of IKEA
But there will also be those companies that’ll drag their feet and avoid doing anything that’ll impact the bottom line. Perhaps I’m just cynical today.
