The Three Things Humanity Must Do

[Much of this column is from “Moving to a Finite Earth Economy — Crew Manual” a book published last year, co-authored with Bob Leonard. This book set forth to answer the question: how can humanity face climate change and do so by 2030? The bottom line on the entire book is that IF humanity does not move from fossil fuels comprising 77% of all our current energy to 30% by 2030, along with several other key changes, civilization as we know it will cease to exist by the end of this century. This is why the 2020s is such a key moment in human history.]

In an earlier column here “The Four Overarching Dynamics of the 2020s”, I stated that the Age of Climate is the most significant and urgent of the four. Here, I am expanding on that column.

“The approach to resolving Climate Change is to focus on the reduction of CO2 emissions. It is an understandable yet insufficient approach. There is a lesson from childhood that applies to this topic, and it is a tough lesson to learn. The lesson is: Being less bad is not the same as being good”. — Houle and Rumage, This Spaceship Earth

On a macro-level there are three categories of collective action that absolutely must happen if we are to halt the warming that results in climate change.

1. Eliminate the burning of fossil fuels as quickly as possible, and significantly lower the…