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>If you seriously believe that rising carbon levels constitute a catastrophic (or even existential) threat, then you should be open to these approaches. My fee
by RcouF1uZ4gsC 7y ago
>If you seriously believe that rising carbon levels constitute a catastrophic (or even existential) threat, then you should be open to these approaches.
My feeling is that a lot of environmentalists see climate change on the same way that fundamentalists see sexually transmitted diseases: as God (or nature’s) punishment for our immoral ways. Thus the solution is always change your behavior and stop doing the things that you like to do( for example have sex or live in too big of a house or eat meat or have too many kids). I think a lot of environmentalists would be disappointed if we could come up with a technical solution to global warming that allowed us to continue our lifestyle pretty much unchanged, just like a lot of fundamentalists were disappointed that condoms, antibiotics, and birth control allowed people to have sex without a lot of the consequences they had been warning people about.
- quotemstr 7y agoRight. I feel like some people will accept nothing less than rolling back industrial civilization.
- rayiner 7y agoMany also see it as a way to use government to control peoples’ lifestyles. That’s why politics and laws get so much emphasis over technological solutions. That’s why the “Green New Deal” is primarily a jobs program rather than a carbon recapture Manhattan Project. You don’t need world government if the US invents practical carbon recapture technology.
- Fr0styMatt88 7y agoMy gut feeling is that geoengineering has to happen. It's like trying to get rich by saving pennies here and there (cutting emissions) vs investing in a successful business (geoengineering). I mean, we can cut and cut emissions but doesn't that just delay the inevitable (assuming continued population growth)? Plus getting everyone to change their behaviour is a nice goal but at some point we'll need to admit it probably isn't possible to create the behaviour changes needed to stop a catastrophe (human nature and long-term thinking being what it is).
- chillacy 7y agoThat’s a good analogy. Similarly some who fight abortion can simultaneously fight contraceptives or sex ed, despite one reducing the other.