The weaknesses of our technocratic mindset on HN are so apparent whenever this subject comes up. This is not a technical problem. We know the threat, we know w

The weaknesses of our technocratic mindset on HN are so apparent whenever this subject comes up. This is not a technical problem. We know the threat, we know what we should do, but we can't actually get it done. This is a political problem. And to my eye, it's a particularly intractable one. In democracies, in order to make the huge sweeping changes required to avoid the worst of climate change, you need the population on board. And they are not on board for those kinds of changes. You can scream and wave your hands all you want about CO2 taxes and smaller houses and not eating meat, but as soon as you start hitting people in their pockets hard to encourage other actions, they'll just vote you out of office instead. There will always be another politician who is happy to tell the population that they don't need to put up with this crazy sacrifice, there are better ways, etc. So either you get voted out of office or you just cave to the pressure. Humans are going to suffer from climate change, a lot. And even then, I suspect technology is what will save us, not billions of people deciding (for the first time ever) to make great individual sacrifices for the greater long-term good. It's the ultimate collective action problem, and we are not up for it.