Economics: How An Intelligent Society Would Deal With Climate Change

(Drivebycuriosity) - Everyone is talking about climate change. Here are some thoughts how a really intelligent society could reduce the emission of greenhouse gases in order to curb global warming. An intelligent society would implement this in the most efficient way. It would build a network of high speed and similar trains - including subways - in order to replace most of the car traffic. The electricity would be generated by nuclear power plants which emit zero greenhouse gases. They also would deliver cheap energy for homes (heating, cooking). These steps could reduce greenhouse emission by at least 20%.

The necessary huge infrastructure investments should by done by private investors and not by governments which are bureaucratic and inefficient. Investor Elon Musk already started to construct tunnels . The private enterprises could finance these investments by long term bonds which are backed by the government. In these case the bonds would carry low risks - not more than governments bonds - which would keep the interest rates low.

An intelligent society would also eliminate building restrictions in the cities. Today many cities have strict zoning rules which restrict the highs of the buildings. As a result  too few flats get constructed which makes them expensive. If the cites would skip the zoning rules and allow much higher buildings then living in big cities would get much cheaper and would attract more people to move there.

I live in New York City and I don´t need a car (and I don`t have one) because the distances are short. Most things can be done by walking or using subways & buses. If a large part of the US population - today about 320 million people - would move to New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta and other metropolises these communities would become megacities with each more than 10 million residents. The same would happen in other countries. I think New York City, London, Madrid, Paris  & Co. could get much bigger and denser if they grow vertical. Skyscrapers  -  especially the new slim towers you can see now in Manhattan - don´t need much space. Upwards is a lot of space, thanks to modern technologies. These towers multiply the number of available apartments per square foot.

If a large part of the US population - and other countries - would live in megacities the nature could recover.  Today large parts of the US - and other countries - are covered with concrete (houses, malls, streets) thanks to the vast sprawl. This land could be replanted with forests, bush- and grassland would also curb the greenhouse effect and could be used for recovering.

The growth of mega-cities would raise the consume of electricity of course - for subways, electric buses, elevators and such - which today creates already nearly 30% of the greenhouse gases (chart above). The US and other countries could follow France which reduced the CO2 emission by generating more electricity by nuclear plants. Today the French create about 80% of their electric power from nuclear plants, which emit zero CO2 (cleantechnica). More electric power by nukes would also lower the cost for electricity and animate to use more of it for residential uses (heating, cooking), which today generates about 10% of the greenhouse gases.  So the raise of mega-cities combined with a revival of nuclear energy could reduce the emission of CO2 significantly.
 
Bigger and  denser cities connected by networks with fast trains electrified by nuclear plants would stop climate change. But are societies intelligent enough to implement the changes?