How America can leave fossil fuels behind, in one chart

Vox

What the 2020 US election means for climate change.

Transcript

00:01- For more than 10,000 years,

00:02the average global

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undefined:undefinedagree that we need to limit

00:49global warming to this range:

00:51between 1.5 and two degrees celsius.

00:56Carbon dioxide,

00:57which is emitted when we

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undefined:undefinedindustrial powers,

01:21it's emitted more carbon dioxide in total

01:24than any other country or region.

01:27So America has a big role

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undefined:undefinedand climate for Vox.

01:55- You just can't have the world's

01:57second biggest economy opting out,

01:59moving the opposite direction,

02:02and expect the world to get there.

02:03- Sorry, my son nearly stepped on a snake.

02:06Do you want to say hi?

02:06- This is Saul Griffith?

02:08He's a physicist and an engineer,

02:10but this is how Dave describes him...

02:12- Probably the person who

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undefined:undefinedtogether to build a very

02:37comprehensive picture of

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undefined:undefinedevery unit of energy.

02:58How does it enter the economy?

03:00How is it used throughout the economy?

03:03- This kind of chart is

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undefined:undefinedsolar, wind, nuclear, and oil.

03:22This column in the middle is

03:23what those energy sources

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undefined:undefinedof the interconnections,

04:03which is really, really important

04:05when you do the next exercise.

04:06But what happens if we decarbonize?

04:09- Remember that carbon emissions

04:10come from the burning of

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undefined:undefinedelectricity this way,

04:38and to replace it with other

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undefined:undefinedthe vehicles emissions.

05:12It doesn't solve your heating emissions

05:15from using natural gas,

05:16or fuel oil in your basement.

05:18- All these Other parts of the economy

05:20draw their energy directly

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undefined:undefinedelectric vehicles,

05:52wind turbines, nuclear power plants,

05:55because we know that that can work.

05:56We know we do electric cars.

05:58We know we can do electric

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undefined:undefinedand concrete are really

06:28hard to manufacture without fossil fuels.

06:31But if we decarbonized as much as possible

06:34with the technology that we have now,

06:36it would end most of the

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undefined:undefinedtransition, to carbon taxes,

07:11to a much more direct and

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undefined:undefined2000 and started then,

07:27you could just put like a

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undefined:undefinedof us alive have seen.

07:51It would look like what FDR did

07:53to prepare the U.S. for war.

07:55Literally every single

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undefined:undefinedplant that comes online

08:17is industrial scale salt water,

08:19or industrial wind.

08:20We need that level of effort

08:21to do a lot better than two degrees.

08:27- All of recorded human

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undefined:undefinedthe U.S. decides to do.

08:47America can decarbonize.

08:49We have the technology to do it.

08:52We have the resources.

08:55The only question is

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undefined:undefinedwe're stealing by not doing it.

Transcript

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