> Renewables are also extremely limited in practical use.

From my experience, they are a lot less limited than people realize. The UK's use of wind is a good example [0], studies have been done in Australia where we previously thought the upper limit of renewables would be 20% of power generation only 10 years ago, each yeah they are revising this number upwards thanks to technology developments. South Australia is a good example here too [1].

Just because we can't easily foresee a solution that is 100% renewable/carbon free energy generation _right now_, doesn't mean we shouldn't head in that direction. Waiting around for a perfect solution and sitting on our hands is exactly what we shouldn't be doing.

Also in regards to your comments for individual behaviors impacting the planet, turns out people can walk and chew gum at the same time. I'm vegan, avoid flying (haven't flown in >5 years), work remote and have solar panels on my house. Making personal changes like you and I (and many others and growing) have done absolutely makes a difference, but so does the technology development. For example

> With sun and wind you can only implement it so far before you hit a wall, the wall being the need for huge amounts of grid storage to serve dark/not windy times.

I work mainly in the solar radiation forecasting area, basically thickness of clouds forecasts. Something that the _tech_ we've developed performs really well at is forecasting the next 4 hours, updating every 5-15 minutes thanks to the amazing tech that is the latest generation of geostationary weather satellites. As you likely know, one of the important properties of an electricity grid is stability which the intermittent nature of renewables like solar don't excel (as you've pointed out) at especially if you live anywhere there are commonly clouds. One way to improve stability is to smooth out the variability and to know ahead of time how much the power output is going to change. You might think this is just a 1-2% improvement but actually this is impacts _how much_ solar power generation to can add to an electricity grid by a lot and it also GREATLY reduces the size of battery required to get that smoothing of power generation. Does it get us to 100% renewable energy generation? No, but it lets us rush for higher penetration whilst maintaining stability in electricity networks, which helps generators make money, which makes investment look more attractive, which builds more solar, you see the cycle.

So yes, you can only implement them so far, but how far this can be taken is generally rising in many countries, and getting there quickly is important.

Yes, if everyone made the individual choices today, the world could drop our CO2 emissions very quickly in a short period of time. Social problems are hard and sadly we have leaders without the political will to go against their own personal self interest and that of their large emitter donors [2]. So while some lobby to try and change this, others try to encourage those with money from their large emissions to put their money somewhere else that will reduce emissions by making it more profitable. A carrot AND a stick as it were. It isn't just "hopeium", people in these fields are working their butts off and the inertia is building, it's not going to be easy so yes I think the future is bright _for the climate tech industry_ as there are positive contributions to be made. As for the general future re climate change, no, it is not looking bright but working to make it less shit is something I'd encourage others to do.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/oct/14/renewable-e...

[1] https://opennem.org.au/energy/sa1/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sitPeRlTdNs