Will the world be a better or worse place in 2049, energy and climate response?
it depends if the humans learn there lessons on burying plastic where it should be reused and the mindless burning of oil like there is no tomorrow and then there is the attitude factor in that some care some don’t and its a real pitty that people don’t care about the world they live in since its the only one they have. the real danger is that as oil and gas gets a bit thin on the ground there are all sorts of implications you have seen how OPEC can try to hold western governments to ransom and damage economies by hyped oil prices and controlling output. and how Russia has done the same where Europe is concerned. sadly in the 1980s the conservatives sold off all the natural assets that the UK had so now you have no fail-safe to use should anything or the political climate in the world get a bit warm and fuzzy. so yes there is a real political and environmental hot potato due.
It will definitely be better. But it is always interesting to note how many people assume it will be worse, especially young people. The public schools have done a good job of brainwashing them and making them think Al Gore’s work of fiction actually has some kind of scientific merit. I teach an online Oceanography course for high school students. There is an opinion question students are assigned about what the earth will be like in twenty years. Inevitably they answer ridiculous things like Michigan will be like Florida in twenty years. I think it is something in human nature that makes people want to think that they have it so much worse off than all generations that came before, despite all evidence to the contrary.
2009 is the turning point. We need nothing short of a Green revolution and a massive one starting this very year. If we do and we completely change our lifestyles and give up the idea of ‘economic growth’, then 2049 could be an eco paradise. If we don’t do drastic stuff and start now then you wouldn’t want to be here in 2049.
