Your words are elegant and very admiral, and the sad thing is, there is nothing we can do about so called global warming! Yes, some of the industrial "scrubbers" have increase the quality of air in and around some of our industrial cities!
But, since "trees" contribute more carbon into the atmosphere than do humans, do you think we should cut down all trees and go back to living in mud huts?
God, through his grace, have given us the intelligence to figure out as humans, how to increase our quality of life on this earth! While it is easy for people to disagree with you and I, even though we have different points of view about this subject, the best thing man can do to help his quality of life on this earth is to build things which are carbon free, because there is nothing we can do about the past.
I think that with people with your point of view, will cost people in the U.S. so much money, you will have people on fixed incomes "freezing" to death because they can't afford their electrical bills.
Unfortunately the powers that be in this country, just don't understand the "un-intended" results of some of the laws that are passed, so this subject is like most others, they don't seem to care about the results of their actions, they only care about remaining in their "ivory" towers in Washington!
Now, with the benefit of hind sight, wouldn't it be nice to go back to 1960 and start over? Of course I know a lot of people reading this wouldn't even be born yet, but we would know better how to educate them on problems facing us!
First thing I would do is, when someone gets to the age of 14, they are given, free of charge, a J-3 cub, with 100 gallons of free gas and told to learn how to fly and respect the earth that God has given us to enjoy. I have yet to meet anyone who flies who does not have a different outlook on themselves and other humans. Maybe that is the answer to our present day problems, give everybody a J-3 cub. LOL
Earl, some things are worth fighting for, a planet our kids will want to live on is one of them, in my view. Nobody who is serious has ever said it will be easy, or cheap, only that it will be necessary.
And trees mostly contribute carbon via dying, something shared with every living thing on the planet.
As for the carbon-based products, the primary problem is that most of it is simply thrown away, and ends up being burned.
Of course the overarching problem is our need for power, which can be met by a number of sources.I personally am an advocate of nuclear power, as an interim until other sources can be sufficiently integrated into the power grid.
Of course we also face the problem that the world does in fact have a carrying capacity, and that nobody has done anything about it. At some point, we have to face the fact that we can't have 11 billion people living in 1200sq ft homes, using up all the power they want. Which is the direction we're heading.
We're eventually even wealthy nations are going to openly go to war over consumable resources, or we're going to have to accept draconian and strictly regulated birth limits enforced by the government. Alternatively, we can also have forced euthanisation at a set age determined by birthrates, so that the population doesn't increase. It's a toejamty choice straight out of some Orwellian dystopia, and I don't claim otherwise. But it is, by the simple nature of population increase and limited resources, the choice we're faced with.
Anyone who truly understands the situation, and is not advocating immediate action, is desperately praying for science to save us. But it's a gamble, and the stakes are not something I personally am comfortable with.