The New One Percent Rule

One percent of global GDP invested in renewable energy would provide 80% of the world’s power in four decades but “only if governments pursue the policies needed to promote green power,” according to a new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

If the full range of renewable technologies were deployed, the world could keep greenhouse gas concentrations to less than 450 parts per million, the level scientists have predicted will be the limit of safety beyond which climate change becomes catastrophic and irreversible, according to the Guardian.

Catastrophic here feels subjective – the oceans are already becoming more acidic and this is catastrophic in the here and now, not only in the future. Also, 80% of the world's power from renewables is fantastic but four decades -- do we have that kind of time? Seems like the oceans do not.

Nevertheless, these results, these tangibles, are the kind of positive thinking we need to get us there.