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First off, I don't see how that is helpful considering industrial output and per capita consumption are already considered far too high to be sustainable. In fact, since at least the '70's many environmental economists have been calling for planned economic degrowth in the face of unsustainable utilization rates of not just fossil fuels, but other natural resources as well.

Second of all, I think there's a strong argument to be made that high-tech renewable energy is not up to the task of supplying us the the kind of energy we're used to, nor will it ever be. Yet that very likely contingency isn't even being considered in public discourse.

I still agree with the central message of the report, though. Cutting emissions is the best path to prosperity. I just don't think that prosperity and growth have to go hand in hand. The rather standard (and silly) assumption that economic growth is somehow independent of energy needs to be discarded. It is not tenable. And it implies, wrongly, that energy related emissions can be reduced without consequences for growth.

Again, I don't want to be combative, but a vegan diet is less expensive for a given quality of food (i.e. if you buy local+organic vegan, it is less expensive than local+organic omnivore; and if you buy conventional vegan, it is less expensive than conventional omnivore). If you buy a lot of vegan substitutes for cheese, meat, etc, yeah, sure it's more expensive, but you don't need those things as part of your diet-- in fact, I prefer foods without them.

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See here about health. That post isn't even informed by the recent information and studies coming out in favor of a plant-based diet.

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If you supplement with b12 (be aware that the way you are currently getting it is from synthetics given to animals). Spirulina is like a catchall vegan multivitamin and multimineral-- it has iodine, a little bit of b12, protein, etc.

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Supplementation required for veganism specifically would cost you like <$50 month, which is covered by the savings from not buying meat/dairy/cheese/eggs. I would also recommend a zinc supplement, which imo everyone (vegans and omnis) needs because our food is depleted of zinc. Vitamin D is a similar thing-- both omnis and vegans may need supplementation. I had a deficiency and so I take this brand which is vegan d3 with no additives-- seems expensive, but that bottle will last you about 8 months, so that's $50/8 months roughly $6 a month.

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But of course it's up to you. If you do decide to try to move in that direction, you don't need to do it all at once. Make a change that feels comfortable to you, keep it, and slowly increase at a pace that is comfortable for you.

The seaweed figure (50 billion tons annually) is from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_sequestration

The Wikipedia references this article:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/nov/20/climate-crisis-future-brighter-tim-flannery
>The most exciting, if least well understood, of all the biological options involve the marine environment. Seaweed grows very fast, meaning that seaweed farms could be used to absorb CO2 very efficiently, and on a very large scale. The seaweed could be harvested and processed to generate methane for electricity production or to replace natural gas, and the remaining nutrients recycled. One analysis shows that if seaweed farms covered 9% of the ocean they could produce enough biomethane to replace all of today’s needs in fossil fuel energy, while removing 53 gigatonnes of CO2 (about the same as all current human emissions) per year from the atmosphere. It could also increase sustainable fish production to provide 200kg per year, per person, for 10 billion people. Additional benefits include reduction in ocean acidification and increased ocean primary productivity and biodiversity. Many of the technologies required to achieve this are already in widespread use, if at a comparatively minuscule scale.

The article referenced in the above quote is not identified. The article is presumably referencing the following book by the author Tim Flannery:

This one "Atmosphere of Hope" is out of stock:
https://www.guardianbookshop.com/catalog/product/view/id/344757/

Tim Flannery has a number of books on Amazon including this one specifically on seaweed:
https://www.amazon.com/Sunlight-Seaweed-Argument-Power-Clean-ebook/dp/B071LD3TVS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503710029&sr=8-1&keywords=Tim+Flannery#customerReviews

Perhaps there is some information there.

I need to look into this more myself. Busy with work. Have done a little sporadic reading,

I note that much of the Pacific Coast can produce large amounts of kelp provided the seaweed has an attachment point and a population of sea otters that eat the animals that would consume the kelp. I think many of the plans for seaweed involve providing floating attachments in the open ocean. I read a little (can't remember where). Apparently the seaweed can be sunk in deep water and it will be preserved on the ocean floor without releasing the carbon incorporated in its cells.

There is also talk of using passive means to mix the oceans to fertilize sunny surface waters with nutrients from the deep oceans. Idea is to stimulate algae growth and accelerate the natural carbon cycle in the ocean.

Here is a link to the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Burning-Question-Cant-Burn-Worlds/dp/1771640073

This is the best general book on the complexity of the emissions problem that I have read.

Here is a good synopsis: "The Burning Question reveals climate change to be the most fascinating scientific, political and social puzzle in history. It shows that carbon emissions are still accelerating upwards, following an exponential curve that goes back centuries. One reason is that saving energy is like squeezing a balloon: reductions in one place lead to increases elsewhere. Another reason is that clean energy sources don't in themselves slow the rate of fossil fuel extraction. Tackling global warming will mean persuading the world to abandon oil, coal and gas reserves worth many trillions of dollars — at least until we have the means to put carbon back in the ground. The burning question is whether that can be done. What mix of politics, psychology, economics and technology might be required? Are the energy companies massively overvalued, and how will carbon-cuts affect the global economy? Will we wake up to the threat in time? And who can do what to make it all happen?"

Here's a pretty good article on the CO2-Ozone connection

CO2 keeps heat from escaping because it absorbs some frequencies of infrared light, but not visible light. Visible light passes through, hits the surface of the earth, and warms things up. The warm objects then emit infrared light. Some of this light will get absorbed by the CO2, which will then warm up, and radiate infrared light in turn. The range of frequencies absorbed by CO2 depends on the partial pressure of CO2 in the atmosphere, and as you increase the amount of CO2, it absorbs a broader range of frequencies. The same goes for other greenhouse gasses.

You might be better-served by looking at an introductory textbook, like this one than by asking random people on the internet. It'll walk you through what is going on in a comprehensive way, showing the math which describes each phenomenon in a fair bit of detail.

I find McPherson's data (not message) very helpful, because allows me to deal with reality. It pulls back the curtain and see industrial civilization (IC) for what it is.


What A Way To Go: Life at the end of Empire:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2em1x2j9-o


Peak mining & implications for natural resource management - Simon Michaux:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFyTSiCXWEE


We all know we cannot fight (change) IC and the reason is that the energy in today's $65 barrel of oil is roughly equivalent to 10 years, at eight hours a day of manual labor, of human energy or ~$200,000! This seduction is beyond rationality and therefore cannot be stopped with 'discussion'.


Twenty (Important) Concepts I Wasn't Taught in Business School - Part I
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/8402


How Fossil Fuels Subsidize Us
http://www.energytrendsinsider.com/2014/05/09/how-fossil-fuels-subsidize-us/


Got Storage? How Hard Can It Be?
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/8405


So what should a reasonable person do with the climate data McPherson presents? Take out a $30,000 car loan? Buy a house with a 30 year mortgage? Stay in the stock market? Have kids?


Roger Boyd Video - Financial System on Life Support - July 2014:
http://vimeo.com/99913495


Roger Boyd Book - Energy and the Financial System: What Every Economist, Financial Analyst, and Investor Needs to Know - February 28, 2014:
http://www.amazon.com/Energy-Financial-System-Economist-SpringerBriefs/dp/3319042378/

So what is the message? Do what you love, but be aware of your surroundings and plan accordingly.

Here are some tips to get started:

• This funny and good presentation by Dan Ariely is a good start about human moral behavior (assuming you agree that climate change is a moral problem). There's also a book if you prefer that.
  
• Another important point are the limitations of human morality. A short read would be Paul Bloom's piece in the New Yorker. Again, there's also a book. See also the The Identifiable Victim Bias.
  
• A description of these and various other effects can be fund in George Marshall's "Don't even think about it" which is specifically about the psychology of climate change.
  
  Hope this helps.

Ah! Those were questions addressed to the original reader of my response to get them thinking. The readers consist of conspiracy theorists and family members/family friends whom the conspiracy theorists CC when they share these articles.

Confirmation bias surely plays a role, as does, in many cases, misinformation, as documented in: http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/denialmachine/ and Hoggan and Littlemore's [Climate Cover-Up] (http://www.amazon.ca/Climate-Cover-Up-Crusade-Global-Warming/dp/1553654854).

John Cook's handbook is great, as is Oreskes and Conway's book (I've actually sent a copy along to one of the conspiracy theorists, not that I'm guessing it'll get read all the way through). I hadn't seen the Naomi Klein article, but I'm definitely going to check it out now. Thanks for passing that along!

My understanding of the ethics is largely based on my readings of Climate Change Ethics: Navigating the Perfect Moral Storm.

A reviewer commented "Dr.Brown is very concrete so the reader is guided through the relevancy of scientific, economic, and policy issues with concrete ethical theory".

I'd highly recommend the book.

Try these:
Electricity Grid Infrastructure,
Oil and Natural Gas Infrastructure.
Maybe this site can help with some basic information. Valclav Smil is an excellent source for many areas you're investigating: Energy Transitions, Energy Myths and Realities, Rise and Retreat of American Manufacturing, Oil, Prime Movers of Globalization, and Energy at the Crossroads

Sure it's depressing, but some people are intentionally evil, willing to actively lie to get what they want. They're called sociopaths, and they make up 2-4% of the population. They are defined by a strong personal sense of superiority, a reckless disregard for "little people's rules", a ruthless willingness to screw anyone for personal gain, and a psychotic confidence that they'll be able to lie their way out of any jam. Sound familiar?

I can't give you a straight answer but I would suggest reading about how their psychology works to prevent them from believing it. This book was recommended to me by a geographer and climate scientist and it's very good.

Don't Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change

Otherwise, google it! :)

There are a bunch of people whose job it is to put out hard-to-debunk nonsense. People aren't going to watch this kind of video content because it takes a big chunk of their day, and they're not going to learn anything meaningful from it.
Instead, try to identify the argument that they're making, and do a site-specific search on skepticalscience.com, which maintains of database of this kind of stuff, along with explanations of why it is wrong. Something like:
site:skepticalscience.com natural cycle

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I want to give another plug for Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway's Merchants of Doubt. Reading that, you realize it is the same exact set of people who were employed to manufacture doubt about tobacco, DDT, the ozone hole, and many other issues. It became their business model and it has worked.