Our Dirty Dependence

Plumer recognizes that we’re losing the battle against climate change:

As the world grows, it keeps using more and more energy. And fossil fuels still supply the vast majority of that energy. Oil remains the dominant source of fuel for our cars, trucks, and airplanes. And coal and natural gas are the leading sources of electricity. All told, fossil fuels made up 87 percent of the world’s energy consumption in 2013.

That ratio hasn’t changed since 1999, as the University of Colorado’s Roger Pielke Jr. points out. And Alexis Madrigal takes note that coal reached the largest share of the global energy market since 1970 last year:

Coal consumption was up 3 percent. That’s actually a decline from its 10-year average of growing 3.9 percent per year. … Even in the wealthier OECD countries, “consumption increased by 1.4 percent, with increases in the US and Japan offsetting declines in the EU.”