The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has a new study this week: to prevent catastrophic global warming, the world will need to stop emitting all man-made carbon dioxide (CO2) by 2085. So say goodbye to Uber, iPhones, computers, trains, planes, automobiles, air conditioners, heating, or anything that even remotely relies on fossil fueled power. It means our entire way of life would be thrown into the Stone Age to prevent an unlikely two-degree Celsius rise in temperatures from occurring by 2100. And it would keep developing nations from being industrialized. Forget renewables. According to manufacturing analyst Steven Capozzola, you “can’t build a wind farm with the electricity generated by a wind farm.”

Negative emissions needed

Additionally, the federally funded NCARstudy says that we will need to develop carbon scrubbing devices capable of removing CO2 from the air. It notes that even if every sector in every country – including manufacturing, power generation, farming, transportation, and the military–ceased all operations, we would still need technology to remove 15 gigatons of CO2 a year from the atmosphere.