Oops I mean’t global warming. In a WSJ opinion column (registration may be required), author Steven Hayword tries to put the goal of 80% reduction of global warming gases by 2050 into perspective.
First, this translates into approximately 1 billion metric tons, vs. the current 5.8 billion metric tons. According to Hayword, it’s been awhile since we used so little green house gases.
Were man-made carbon dioxide emissions in this country ever that low? The answer is probably yes – from historical energy data it is possible to estimate that the U.S. last emitted one billion metric tons around 1910. But in 1910, the U.S. had 92 million people, and per capita income, in current dollars, was about $6,000.
Presently, American households emit more than the nations target limit in 2050.
Consider the residential sector. At the present time, American households emit 1.2 billion tons of CO2 – 20% higher than the entire nation’s emissions must be in 2050. If households are to emit no more than their present share of CO2, emissions will have to be reduced to 204 million tons by 2050. But in 2050, there will be another 40 million residential households in the U.S.
If we all drove Priuses
Right now our cars and trucks consume about 180 billion gallons of motor fuel. To meet the 2050 target, we shall have to limit consumption of gasoline to about 31 billion gallons, unless a genuine carbon-neutral liquid fuel can be produced. (Ethanol isn’t it.) To show how unrealistic this is, if the entire nation drove nothing but Toyota Priuses in 2050, we’d still overshoot the transportation emissions target by 40%.
The goal of Boulder’s recently announcement Visionary Sustainable Energy Plan, is only for a 40% reduction in greenhouse gases, however they want to reach that by 2020. I suspect that goal is more drastic then the current 80% reduction by 2050 that both Barack and Hillary endorse.
