It’s not a given, but you may think it would be a good idea to do something about the ongoing climate emergency. So here are two points.
One: The single largest contributing factor to climate change is that there are 8-billion of us. The biomass of just humans is 20 times that of all wild mammals combined! That is egregious overpopulation. It does not matter if we reduce our individual carbon footprint if we keep increasing our population. People will say all manner of ridiculous things but realistically, if most people are going to have a decent quality of life, then half of half this population is likely sustainable. If you want to avert this catastrophe then you need to acknowledge that a plan for reducing over-population is essential.
Two: No matter what you have heard or what you want to believe, the ONLY technology we have for electrifying on the scale necessary to depreciate fossil fuels is nuclear fission. While several other sources of electricity no doubt have a roll in our energy mix, there is no and may never be, any other low-carbon source of energy that can replace coal, oil and gas. In particular wind and solar fall short by ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE. It’s not even close. Nuclear is safe and cost effective and the technology is fully resolved. We should have seen massive investment starting in the early ’90s. But we can’t go back, so TODAY is the best time to start.
Most of the reason we have accomplished less than nothing in dealing with this pressing crisis, which I learned about in the 1970s in grade school, is primarily that we have not gotten over these two stumbling blocks. It may already be too late to avert 2.5°C of catastrophic global warming. But if people, perhaps including you, do not pull their heads out of their asses soon, the consequences will be much much worse.