***Generic Renewables DA***

***Generic Renewables DA***

1NC – Warming

“Renewable energy is expanding rapidly as technologies mature, with deployment transitioning from support-driven markets to new and potentially more competitive segments in many countries,” IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said during today’s launch. “Given the emergence of a portfolio of renewable sources as a crucial pillar of the global energy mix, market stakeholders need a clear understanding of the major drivers and barriers to renewable deployment. Based on these factors, this report forecasts global renewable development and, in so doing, provides a key benchmark for both public and private decision makers.”

That conclusion is easy to draw. Persistently high prices for oil, caused largely by rising demand in Asia, is strengthening the energy industry and its ability to convince state governments and Washington to scrub interest in developing cleaner energy alternatives. The urgency to avoid this scenario is keen for the millions of Americans who could work in the alternative energy sector, and for the planet’s health.

Never has the phrase “easier said than done” been more appropriate.

In a 68-page document titled Energy Perspectives 2012, the IEA examines the status of technology development, the alternatives, the state of policy support and R&D, and various scenarios that could give the world the best chance of avoiding dangerous climate change.

In order to meet the 2°C goal, the IEA says it’s absolutely essential to establish more flexible energy generation and distribution systems, so that at least 50 percent of the world’s electricity is provided by renewables by the middle of the century. In order for this to happen, global investments in what IEA sees as critical technologies – carbon capture and storage, solar thermal, and offshore wind – must double by 2020.

“An additional $36 trillion of investment would be required to overhaul the world’s current energy system by the middle of the century, but this would be offset by $100 trillion in savings through reduced use of fossil fuels,” reads the report.

You would think that in a time of worldwide financial crisis, with the world’s major economies in trillions of dollars of debt, these types of savings would be all that’s needed to put the wheels of progress in motion. But alas, that is not the case. Although government funding of clean technology may seem more robust than ever, the report found that R&D for emerging technologies is less than it was in the 1980s.

“Now that we have identified the solution and the host of related benefits, and with the window of opportunity closing fast, when will governments wake up to the dangers of complacency and adopt the bold policies that radically transform our energy system? To do anything less is to deny our societies the welfare they deserve,” said IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven.

 

In the Online Journal of Space Communication , Dr. Feng Hsu, a  NASA scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center, a research center in the forefront of science of space and Earth, writes, “The evidence of global warming is alarming,” noting the potential for a catastrophic planetary climate change is real and troubling(Hsu 2010 ) . Hsu and his  NASA colleagues were engaged in monitoring and analyzing climate changes on a global scale, through which they received first-hand scientific information and data relating to global warming issues, including the dynamics of polar ice cap melting. After discussing this research with colleagues who were world experts on the subject, he wrote: I now have no doubt global temperatures are rising, and that global warming is a serious problem confronting all of humanity. No matter whether these trends are due to human interference or to the cosmic cycling of our solar system, there are two basic facts that are crystal clear: (a)there is overwhelming scientific evidence showing positive correlations between the level of CO2 concentrations in Earth’s atmosphere with respect to the historical fluctuations of global temperature changes; and (b) the overwhelming majority of the world’s scientific community is in agreement about the risks of a potential catastrophic global climate change. That is, if we humans continue to ignore this problem and do nothing, if we continue dumping huge quantities of greenhouse gases into Earth’s biosphere, humanity will be at dire risk (Hsu 2010 ) . As a technology risk assessment expert, Hsu says he can show with some confidence that the planet will face more risk doing nothing to curb its fossil-based energy addictions than it will in making a fundamental shift in its energy supply. “This,” he writes, “is because the risks of a catastrophic anthropogenic climate change can be potentially the extinction of human species, a risk that is simply too high for us to take any chances” (Hsu 2010 ) .