How to decarbonize the grid and electrify everything | John Doerr and Hal Harvey

"The good news is it's now clearly cheaper to save the planet than to ruin it," says engineer and investor John Doerr. "The bad news is: we are fast running out of time." In this conversation with climate policy expert Hal Harvey, the two sustainability leaders discuss why humanity has to act globally, at speed and at scale, to meet the staggering challenge of decarbonizing the global economy (which has only ever increased emissions throughout history) -- and share helpful examples of promising energy solutions from around the world.

[FredAF]

This is the kind of content the world needs. Important matters need to be talked about if we want to make a better world, but we can't forget that just talking about it isn't enough.

[jared]

It's refreshing to listen to a TED talk which brings together subject matter experts for a conversation addressing the specific components of a proposed social or ecological change.

[MANBEARPIG]

Finally someone talking about the solutions rather than problems

[mxbw]

I'm a big believer in decarbonizing the grid and I find it crazy that nuclear energy wasn't even mentioned once. I live in France and we already have a largely decarbonized grid all the while working on renewables as well. New tech exists in the nuclear field making them extremely safe and much more efficient with waste. Sad that nuclear doesn't get a mention.

[micktrillsun]

“more and more efficient cars…” You’re thinking too small. We need more and more efficient transportation systems. We already have automated electric mass transit but very few cities want it. Instead they are all still expanding their oil burning infrastructure, in the form of asphalt roads and the one-person-per-vehicle model, which is a disaster for the environment.

[LeslieDugger]

Love the production style of this talk

[martinvasilev]

I really want more people to watch this they need it.

[mossm]

It’s great that there are climate policy specialists, these are definitely the people we need to be listening to more when making decisions in government.
(From the talk) Looks like the biggest things we need to do are:
1. invest more in renewables to signal companies to scale up production and focus on sustainable energy.
2. Focus on the few individuals who actually have control over the big decisions, the Local elected energy positions
3. Create a definite plan as a country and continually measure progress and hold ourselves accountable.

[Noukz]

Wow, the best "Countdown" video thus far! I could listen to these two gentlemen for hours!

Also, shame they didn't mention how broken our agriculture and food production is, and how easy it is to solve.

EDIT: Also, I forgot to add that, while living in Shenzhen for almost 5 years, I noticed first hand how quickly their public transport shifted, it was amazing! And bear in mind, we're talking about a city of a 15 million people.

[windywendi]

Me: just opened a bag of potato chips
Speaker: Do you know how much Americans spend on potato chips?

[SajadJalilian]

So what about "Molten salt thorium-based nuclear power" ??!!

[ozzyfromspace]

About the point he raised praising Shenzhen for creating policy shifts that basically forced taxis to go electric:

I watched a DW(?) documentary where taxi drivers complained that they were losing revenue because whenever they had to refuel their vehicles, it was 20 to 30 minutes to recharge, and it adds up over time. The electric vehicle shift actually hurt them economically. My point, as someone that cares deeply about the future of our climate, is that we need to examine our propositions more carefully, because while we certainly have good intentions, this massive shifts could really hurt people, and that awareness is a central barrier to progress. As you might recall, the Trump Administration spend a lot of time undoing Obama-era regulations because they held the position that said policies made it harder for American businesses to thrive. Whether or not that was an accurate assessment is beyond the point. We won't be able to make lasting change if we don't account for the people that could end up on the short end of this massive shift to electric, because if they feel that they will get hurt during the transition, they’ll fight you on every step of the way. And rightly so.

[beachcomber]

It's OK to use molten salt nuclear fission reactors to produce hydrogen, because of their low energy cost when used for high-temperature chemical processing. Perhaps it's the only sensible way.

[ikihaku]

For everyone advocating for nuclear. Unfortunately, nuclear is quite expensive, a lot of money and expertise is required to build, maintain and decommission a nuclear power plant. There are a lot of safety and location requirements, plus it’s a big chunk of generation in one place (up to 3000MW an equivalent of 1000-2000 wind turbines), so a powerful distribution grid is needed.

[jacobdu]

the interview environment is so fantastic

[ozzyfromspace]

Fun fact. Atmospheric carbon is about 417 parts per million (ppm). Some people think such a tiny fraction means we're good 👍🏽 but it was actually about 280ppm at the start of the industrial revolution in the 1800s. So, we're actually on track to DOUBLE the amount of carbon in the atmosphere -- which, of course, isn't a good thing. The other problem is that the raw volumetric density of atmospheric carbon dioxide is so low that you can't just "scrub it" out of the air. We're at the point where whatever solutions we use to decrease the amount of CO2 in the air over time will need some mind boggling scale. But I suppose this is one of those, "No, it's not impossible. It's necessary" type situations. Godspeed, Earthlings.

[dwaynejava]

A very important discussion... one thing not mentioned is that big oil has lots of money to fund politicians to not move to tenewable energy.

[evan]

I like this format where there's a conversation. Since TED talks aren't given on a stage at the moment there's opportunities to diversify and take advantage of new presentation formats.

[humberabdulah]

you can use nuclear reactor or thorium to replace coal base power plant

[lukasbeja]

These two guys give me hope in this world. There is nothing better than being reasonable and realistic.