Hence, a lion's share of renewable energy is coming from bioenergy -- converting more land, growing more crops and tree plantations, even cutting remaining diverse forests to burn for electricity. The climate, biodiversity and human rights consequences are clearly not good, and no "solution" to global warming. Besides, renewables currently supply only a tiny faction of global primary energy, according to the International Energy Agency -- about 13 percent in total. But that is largely from bioenergy (10 percent), which includes traditional uses of wood (for cooking, etc.) which comprise about 7 percent. Wind and solar meanwhile contribute a mere 1 percent to total primary energy supply. It would seem dangerously unrealistic to pretend we will replace the remaining 87 percent of global energy supply with wind and solar, or some other renewable, in short enough order to effectively protect our climate. In the end there is no "magic" energy source that will enable us to carry on as we are with business as usual. We will at some point have to recognize that the laws of nature are uncompromising an there is no alternative other than to focus hard on dramatically reducing human consumption of finite planetary resources. Doing so while simultaneously addressing the needs of millions living in extreme poverty without even their most basic needs met will be a massive challenge. But there really appears to be no other path to success.
That is, except perhaps in the minds of those who arrogantly believe they are in control of nature. Circling at the edges of the Typhoon Haiyan carnage are the climate geoengineers, eager for an opportunity to peddle their wares: Desperate measures are needed for desperate times, eh? If all else fails, we can just inject sulphate particles into the stratosphere. It might even be less expensive, some argue. Or if we are worried about the weather, we can just engineer the clouds to shine a bit brighter and prevent the next Haiyan from happening. Not only do those approaches seem guaranteed to make things worse, not better, but also we have to ask WHO will be in control.
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