Yes, Houston, and the world, we’ve got a problem! A BIG one!
The other half of the analysis is to determine how did the CO2 disappear?

It is my understanding that CO2 is an stable molecule and would last indefinitely, am I wrong? Does CO2 disappear in a million years?
Is that process known? Can it be duplicated and enhanced? Provided, of course, that witchcraft had nothing to do with it, or a meteor blew the atmosphere away, or some other crazy and incredible idea.
How about the Super Nova that sent Gamma rays, a long time ago, and blew our air molecules apart? Did I read that somewhere, more importantly, did YOU?

Perhaps deserving of a separate wedge is energy storage. Not any particular type but all possibilities. Because one of the biggest limitations for solar and wind is energy storage. Without that, the amount of energy that these sources can supply to a grid is very limited without breaking the grid. Even with smarter grids and HVDC and other developments. Also storage is central to transport energy.

And applying energy storage technology effectively needs to be done at the right scale – batteries in every home for your solar panels vs huge grid connected battery farms that provide load balancing for whole regions; pumped storage as giant hydro projects vs tanks in your roof and cellar. Getting the mix of scales right for each type of technology is important to getting the optimum benefit from each technology and maximising the efficiency of the technology’s use of resources – just how much lead will we need for all those billions of old fashioned batteries; how much concrete for all the pumped storage facilities, etc.

Energy storage is potentially a critical enabler for other technologies, to some degree taking the base load demand constraint off the energy generation technologies back and seeing it as a storage problem instead. This can give us greater flexibility in how and on what scale we deploy the products of the other wedges.

1 sq mile = 640 acres; Australia is approx. 3 million sq miles
640 x 3 million = 1.95 billion
approx. 7 billion people who each get 1/4 acre
1/4 x 7 billion = 1.75 billion

So, as you can see, Australian holds approx. 1.95 billion acres which is more than 1.75 billion acres needed to give 1/4 acre to every man, woman, and child of an approx 7 billion human population. Each 1/4 acre can fit a 2-story 2-bedroom solar powered townhouse with a 1 person self-sustaining garden. Now, this will leave the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, Antarctica, South America, and North America NOT inhabited by any human.

The problem that we are facing is not over population, but MIS-management of what we have. This article’s wedge proposal is a very good step in a management solution. I agree with the wedge proposal, but not with a Cap and Trade tax (which has been proven a failure as a solution in many countries) to be implemented in the U.S.

this is true. however the implementation of those changes will prove to be a great deal harder than simply having less children.

[JR: Not. China is up to a 100,000 MW commitment by 2020. And we'll be close to that.]

If you and your vehicle know that a traffic light is to turn red in 30 seconds and you are 31 seconds away, your car would tell you and start regenerative breaking (or simply coast) so you would arrive at the light after the red when the light is turning green without the need for a full stop nor the energy to accellerate from a full stop. Convert stop signs to round-abouts where your cars automatically stop only if another vehicle (or pedestrian/cyclist) is detected.

On freeways, cars would automatically match speeds to avoid the accordian-like stop and start waves during heavy traffic, and enabling higher traffic densities that reduce the need for extra lanes (and the high CO2 of concrete plants). Turn on your signal indicator and cars in the next lane will make a gap to let you in.

The difficulty is not so much technical as attitude. Car companies still market speed as the prime motivator to sell cars. Drivers prefer “performance”, high gas costs and traffic jams.

Basically expanding hydro has great potential but should use a continental North American approach.