Climate change denial You want a magic bullet (fusion) so you don't have to do shit, a government to do shit for you, a religion to convince others to do what you won't do out of free will — Benkei
I've long believed fission and fusion will be a significant part of addressing climate change. The challenge today is that coal is cheapest way to beef up a power grid, which is why China is building two coal driven power plants per week this year.
You can force nuclear power with laws, as is happening in the US. A fission plant is being built near me, actually. But laws come and go. Supply and demand will have a bigger impact over time. Fusion would reduce the demand for coal, natural gas, and petroleum without the environmental impact fission has.
What I contribute is less than the global average and I set aside about 3% of my income each year to finance further reductions. Isolate your home maybe get some solar panels, ompartimentalise your heating system so you only warm rooms you're using, use a bike to get around, consume less, buy second hand, torch all advertisement. You'll save money, get healthier and be happier. It's not new or ground-breaking. In fact, it's all very easy unless you're poor. That's really the only excuse to do nothing. — Benkei
That's great. I also live a low consumption life. One of the systemic problems people overlook is the way we use plastic. Organisms that eat plastic have evolved. That means going forward, that plastic waste will contribute to greenhouse gases. So what's the alternative? I mainly think about that with regard to medical equipment which is pervasively made of disposable plastic for infection control reasons. We could transition back to glass, but guess what power source drives most glass production? Natural gas.
So solar panels are a great idea. They're subsidized by my state. But you can't make glass with a solar panel. Globally, we should be working to transition to fission and fusion. That would actually do something about the problem.