If I can find it again, there was a book review in one of my two favorite papers today, written by a scientist, who gives very good reasons as to why, while climate change is real, it will be impossible to limit our usage of fossil fuels in the time frame that we are told we need to do it. HIs biggest issue is how the largest countries, including China, India, Russia and the US, are continuing to increase their carbon output, and how people keep buying SUVs that use a lot of gas. Where I live, huge pick up trucks are also very common. He gives good points as to why the current goals of climate change activists are totally unreasonable.
Actually U.S. CO2 output has dramatically decreased from ~20 tons/person/year in the 1970s to ~15 tons/person/year today. It isn't that we are using less energy but fracking has allowed us to switch much usage to natural gas that is 'cleaner'. The new restrictions against fracking will likely see that trend reversed.
Are the only places to frack located on Federally owned property?
Even so, the massive increase in coal fired power plant construction in China is a major source of new CO2 emissions.
Yes, China will be more responsible for warming of the Earth in the future than they were 20 years ago. The trouble, the West is largely responsible for the warming we have already experienced. China is simply adding to the very large amount of CO2 The West is already responsible for putting in the atmosphere.
Sorry, I can't find the article, which was actually a book review, that I wanted to share. It had lots of details in it. But, the primary thing was that it will be close to impossible to accomplish the goals that the Democrats and the climate activists are hoping for in the next 10 or 20 years, unless almost every individual changes their habits. I don't see that happening.
China may be the worst offender, but the US isn't making much progress either. Think of all the plastics we use, all the unnecessary trips so many people take, all the air travel that Americans take, etc. For example, the closet elementary school near me, has a long line of cars waiting for school to let out, so they can pick up their kids. They at least could car pool if they don't want their kids to walk or take the school bus. We eat an insane amount of meat per capita. We even feed a lot of meat to our pets. If I ever find that book review, I'll share it.
It's very hard for people to change their habits, and that is one reason why it will be very difficult to reduce our carbon footprint in the near future. I'm not blaming anyone. We all grew up ignorant of how our habits were impacting the environment. Cars from my childhood got about 7 mpg. We may not have been as wasteful and we didn't use a lot of plastics, which I don't think were even available until the late 60s, but we had no idea that the things we did and used had a negative impact on the planet. It wasn't until the 80s that scientists became serious about climate change. And, one of the pieces in the link mentioned that only 60% of Americans believe that climate change is influenced by human activity. It will be a huge struggle to change things.