A problem adequately stated is a problem solved theoretically and immediately, and therefore subsequently to be solved, realistically.
– R. Buckminster Fuller
The planet’s climate is rapidly warming. Here is the existing reality:
(b) Estimated Average Global Temperature during the Last 11,700 Years
When you look at Figure 1, you might see two things:
First, you might see:
- billions of people
- making billions of energy decisions every day and acting on those decisions
- to pour carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere (as shown in Figure 1(a)[1])
to create that global temperature rise of more than 1°C shown on the right hand of Figure 1(b).[2]
Second, you might see urgency. The right hand of Figure 1(b) shows a rise of more than 1°C during the last 60 years. Figure 1(b) shows that almost half of that more than 1°C rise occurred during the last 10 years. Unless global warming is reversed, the world’s children seem destined to live in a world that is many °C hotter than the world you were born into. Time matters for reversing global warming.
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If global warming looks like billions of people making energy decisions and acting on those decisions to pour greenhouse gases into the atmosphere – and if it is urgent – for the sake of the world’s children — to reverse global warming — what might reversing global warming look like?
First, reversing global warming might look like people making energy decisions to avoid pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
People making energy decisions to avoid pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere might look like people making decisions to adopt energy options that avoid pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
An energy option might be thought of as a technology (embodied in a fuel, material, device, apparatus, equipment, system, facility or network) that supplies energy to serve demand, and/or that manages demand served by energy supplied.
People making decisions to adopt energy options that avoid pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere might look like people making decisions to adopt renewable energy options that avoid pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
A renewable energy option might be thought of as a technology (embodied in a fuel, material, device, apparatus, equipment, system, facility or network) that supplies energy from renewable sources to serve demand, and/or that manages demand served by energy supplied from renewable sources.
Second, reversing global warming might look like people swiftly making energy decisions and swiftly acting on those decisions to adopt renewable energy options that avoid pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Reversing global warming might look like people swiftly making those decisions and swiftly acting on those decisions because time matters for reversing global warming.
People swiftly making those decisions might look like a group of decision-making people making consensus decisions and swiftly acting on those consensus decisions to adopt renewable energy options that avoid pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Reversing global warming might look like a group of decision-making people (decision-makers) making those consensus decisions because millions of years of evolution have hard-wired human brains for consensus decision-making by a group of people numbering no more than about 150 people. That maximum group size of about 150 people for consensus decision-making is called “Dunbar’s number” (named after British evolutionary anthropologist Robin Dunbar).
Consensus decision-making produces swift group action in a group no larger than about 150 people because evolution hard-wired human brains with about 150 people as the maximum-sized group in which each person in the group can have a personal relationship of trust with every other person in the group.
Consensus decision-making produces swift group action on consensus decisions because the trust relationships among the people in the group ensure that:
- every person in the group participates – or has a chance to participate – in making the group’s consensus decisions, and
- every person in the group goes along with – and no person in the group resists — taking group action on the group’s consensus decisions.
In other words, human beings’ hard-wired power of consensus decision-making by groups of no more than 150 people is a power for taking swift group action on the group’s consensus decisions.
Third, reversing global warming might look like groups of decision-makers throughout the whole of human society (that is, billions of people) swiftly making consensus decisions and swiftly acting on those decisions to adopt renewable energy options that avoid pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Groups of decision-makers swiftly making those decisions and swiftly acting on those decisions might look like groups of decision-makers (throughout the whole of human society) making consensus decisions and taking swift group actionon those decisions to adopt those renewable energy options.
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In short …
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If reversing global warming looks like groups of decision-makers swiftly making energy decisions and swiftly acting on those decisions to adopt renewable energy options that avoid pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, then what might a group of decision-makers swiftly making those consensus decisions look like?
A group of decision-makers swiftly making those energy decisions might look like a group of decision-makers swiftly achieving 100% renewable energy because:
First, a group of decision-makers might achieve 100% renewable energy by adopting renewable energy options that avoid pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Second, a group of decision-makers might swiftly achieve 100% renewable energy by swiftly making consensus decisions and swiftly acting on those decisions to adopt renewable energy options that avoid pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Third, a group of decision-makers might set an example of swiftly achieving 100% renewable energy that might be imitated by groups of decision-makers throughout the whole of human society to swiftly achieve 100% renewable energy on a global scale and reverse global warming.
In short …
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Wondering how you might persuade a group of decision-makers to swiftly achieve 100% renewable energy?
My new book, You Can Reverse Global Warming, shows you how.
For a limited time, you can download a complimentary advance copy of You Can Reverse Global Warming at www.erikkvam.com.
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Got questions about how you can swiftly achieve 100% renewable energy? About how you can reverse global warming? If you do, I hope that you will send me a message at extraordinary@erikkvam.com. I’m here to serve you.
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In the next article in this Reversing Global Warming series, I’ll show you how anyone can ask two simple questions to persuade a group of decision-makers to swiftly achieve 100% renewable energy.
Thank you for reading this article. I’m grateful for your comments.
[1] https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/wp-content/plugins/sio-bluemoon/graphs/co2_10k.png, accessed on July 29, 2019.
[2] Hansen, J., Sato, M., Kharecha, P., von Schuckmann, K., Beerling, D.J., Cao, J., Marcott, S., Masspon-Delmotte, V., Prather, M.J., Rohling, E.J., Shakun, J., Smith, P., Lacis, A., Russell, G., and Ruedy, R., Young people’s burden: requirement of negative CO2 emissions, Earth Syst. Dynam., 8, 577-616, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-577-2017, 2017.
