{"id":44954,"date":"2019-04-02T07:44:38","date_gmt":"2019-04-02T12:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=44954"},"modified":"2019-04-02T07:44:43","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T12:44:43","slug":"whats-the-difference-between-a-low-carbon-and-zero-carbon-future-survival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=44954","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s the Difference Between a Low-Carbon and Zero-Carbon Future? Survival"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What\u2019s the Difference Between a Low-Carbon and Zero-Carbon Future? Survival<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Governments, media and industry use \u2018low-carbon economy\u2019 frame to continue business as usual.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"TrudeauHorganLNGCanada.jpg\"\/
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier John Horgan celebrating LNG Canada\u2019s investment decision as an investment in the low-carbon economy. They\u2019re missing a critical point: we need a zero-emissions economy. Photo: BC Government Flickr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe finance ministry reckons that even with the estimated $6 billion in relief over 40 years, the province would still reap $22 billion in revenues over the same period. Without the project, returns would, of course, be zero.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a compelling comparison. With the project we can pay for schools, hospitals and poverty reduction. Without it, we have nothing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet it is fallacious, a comparison promoted by Big Oil and adopted by most governments. It takes our minds off alternatives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The correct comparison is between revenues generated from $40 billion invested in fracking and fossil fuel production versus revenues generated from $40 billion invested in renewable energy, such as solar, wind and thermal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two similar-sounding phrases lie at the heart of this issue. One has gained predominance, the other relegated to the margins of climate change discourse. The first is \u201clow-carbon economy,\u201d an economy in which even fracking and liquefied natural gas have a role. The second is \u201czero-carbon economy,\u201d an economy in which no more greenhouse gases are emitted into the atmosphere. In this second framing, the goal must be an economy fuelled entirely by renewable, non-carbon-emitting sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Palmer column illustrates, renewable energy has been largely written out of the script in the climate change narrative being constructed in B.C. and across Canada. For one thing, a renewable energy future would likely mean the end of Royal Dutch Shell and the other fossil fuel supermajors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s the Difference Between a Low-Carbon and Zero-Carbon Future? Survival Governments, media and industry use \u2018low-carbon economy\u2019 frame to continue business as usual. \u201cThe finance ministry reckons that even with the estimated $6 billion in relief over 40 years, the province would still reap $22 billion in revenues over the same period. Without the project, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[23456,18178,1779,5499,25487],"class_list":["post-44954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","tag-donald-gutstein","tag-low-carbon-future","tag-narratives","tag-the-tyee","tag-zero-carbon-future"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44954"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44955,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44954\/revisions\/44955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}