I'm a different kind of crotchety.

I think it's real and potentially catastrophic. But I see very little chance of (sufficient) coordinated action to mitigate it.

I.e., I think there's too much temptation for individual countries to pursue a competitive economic or military advantage by letting everyone but themselves make sacrifices.

I hope I'm wrong.

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bryanlarsen 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Luckily the effect is much larger in the opposite direction: weaning oneself off of foreign oil is a huge advantage both economically and militarily.

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nradov an hour ago | parent [-]

Is it though? For developing countries, having a large supply of fossil fuels has always been a huge accelerator for industrialization and overall economic growth even if that fuel has to be imported. There really is no substitute, especially when you consider that it's not used only for transportation and power generation but also for manufacturing as an industrial heat source and chemical feed stock.

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gzread 27 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Solar energy is cheaper than oil right now. On average. Too bad it's highly variable but if you can cope with extreme variability you can get extremely cheap energy.

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pstuart 37 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

China seems to think so. Their efforts to boost their non-carbon energy sources is going at an advanced clip, along with their advances in EVs.

Not saying they're above reproach, but their energy policy certainly trumps ours.

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eldaisfish 44 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

fossil fuels were a proxy for energy. China continues to show the world that energy independence can come via electricity that you generate within your borders, and that it can be cheaper than importing foreign oil.

	▲	nradov 33 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		China is in no way energy independent. Their fossil fuel imports are extremely high and not decreasing.

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guelo an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Trump is implementing multi decade right wing fantasies in many fronts. The idea that we can't achieve anything is limiting yourself when you're in a political arena. To win, like Trump, when you get power you have to attack on many fronts, cultural, capital, legal, and approach it as a zero sum scorched earth war where norms are another obstacle in your way.

	▲	rayiner an hour ago \| parent [-]
		You weren’t already doing that? You guys literally changed a dictionary definition to make a conservative appointee look bad: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/merriam-webster-changed-def... Trump, a democrat himself, is simply using the multi-front strategy he already knew.