Managing Ourselves to Zero-Carbon

How close are we to a carbon-free world, and how much will it cost to get there? This series answers what no one else has.

“Nothing would happen if it weren’t for the last minute.”

This quote sits above my desk, and after 20 years as a Project Manager on projects up to $220 million in value I know it motivates humans more than anyone wants to believe. We procrastinated on climate change solutions for over thirty years, but we’ve run out of time. To avoid catastrophic feedback loops, we need a zero-carbon world now.

This is the last minute.

Politicians setting goals, protestors in the streets, concerned citizens at home have all failed to stop climate change for one simple reason — no one is managing the process. There is no one person, government, or system collating the data, tracking progress, and guiding change. This series aims to change that. If you want to save the world, you need to know where to step in. Where to invest. Where to apply pressure. Where to ease off.

What’s missing from the dialogue is a realistic assessment of how to achieve zero-carbon. We’ve been talking up electric cars, but when will they replace internal combustion engines? We’re all on board with alternative energy, but when will it phase out coal? For all the words expended in newspapers, journals, and governments on those two topics, what…