A Fork In the Road

“Transition to a post-fossil fuel world of clean energies will not occur as long as fossil fuels are the cheapest energy. Fossil fuels are cheap only because they are subsidized and do not pay their costs to society. Air and water pollution from fossil fuel extraction and use have high costs in human health, food production, and natural ecosystems, with costs borne by the public. Costs of climate change and ocean acidification also are borne by the public, especially young people and future generations.”

dr james hansen fork in the road

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Renowned climate scientist turned activist Dr James Hansen wrote in the Huffington Post about the “fork in the road” humanity is facing:

We stand at a fork in the road. Conventional oil and gas supplies are limited. We can move down the path of dirtier more carbon-intensive unconventional fossil-fuels, digging up the dirtiest tar sands and tar shales, hydrofracking for gas, continued mountain-top removal and mechanized destructive long-wall coal mining. Or we can choose the alternative path of clean energies and energy efficiency.  

Click here to read the full article.

2 thoughts on “A Fork In the Road”

  1. Thanks for the link to the HP article, Christine.

    Sadly, Dr Hansen has been saying this stuff very publicly for at least 5 years and yet, so far, there is very little sign of anyone in government being any the less hypnotised by the fossil fuel lobbyists who say we can have it both ways – we can burn all the Earth’s fossil fuels and then bury all the excess carbon (in about 20 years time).

    There is only one problem with that idea: humanity may not have 20 years!

    Reply
  2. You’re right, Martin, our time to respond to the climate crisis is running very very short. I still side with Paul Gilding who maintains we are slow but not stupid, and we will tackle this in the nick of time.

    Reply

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