unspeakablehorror (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
unspeakablehorror) wrote2022-12-04 08:33 pm
unspeakablehorror) wrote2022-12-04 08:33 pm
Entry tags:
What Is Needed to Address Climate Change
I think climate change is a a difficult issue insofar as it's difficult to see how we can prevent what is the biggest problem with climate change, which is unthinkable numbers of people dying. This is why climate change is inextricably a social justice issue, and it's meaningless to discuss improving the lives of future generations or marginalized groups without consideration of this issue.
I think the solution to this problem needs to be in two parts:
* extensive restructuring of society (the current model can at best deliver far too little, far too late)
*innovative technological solutions (but Big Tech can't and won't implement these)
The above two things of course interact with each other. I think anyone would justifiably feel anxiety about both of these things, but I also think they are the only way to address the problem at hand.
I think capitalism is irreconcilable with repairing our world, prioritizing short term profits as it does over everything else, including over human life and happiness. I think imperialism and colonialism are equally irreconcilable to environmental repair. Though even if it wasn't, it is still irreconcilable to human life and happiness.
I think a fundamental shift needs to happen in how we think of technology. When a lot of people think of technology, they think of electrical machines: computers, cars, airplanes. But this is only really a small sliver of what is represented by technology. Artificial selection is technology, astronomical time-telling and location-telling is technology, cooking and clothing and buildings are inherently technological. Technology is about solving an existing problem in a practical way. Climate change is an existing problem, perhaps the largest we have ever faced.
It's going to take massive technological innovation to replace our existing technology with technology that can allow us to live both comfortably and in an environmentally friendly way. Existing technology can't really do this, and abruptly stripping people of technology they've come to depend on will almost certainly lead to massive numbers of people dying. But continuing to use the technology we currently rely on will do the same. We can get ideas from known technologies, but I don't think we can simply drop them in to solve all our problems. At the least, too much knowledge about some of these technologies has already been lost. But they also were never designed to grapple with the issue of climate change.
I think the solution to this problem needs to be in two parts:
* extensive restructuring of society (the current model can at best deliver far too little, far too late)
*innovative technological solutions (but Big Tech can't and won't implement these)
The above two things of course interact with each other. I think anyone would justifiably feel anxiety about both of these things, but I also think they are the only way to address the problem at hand.
I think capitalism is irreconcilable with repairing our world, prioritizing short term profits as it does over everything else, including over human life and happiness. I think imperialism and colonialism are equally irreconcilable to environmental repair. Though even if it wasn't, it is still irreconcilable to human life and happiness.
I think a fundamental shift needs to happen in how we think of technology. When a lot of people think of technology, they think of electrical machines: computers, cars, airplanes. But this is only really a small sliver of what is represented by technology. Artificial selection is technology, astronomical time-telling and location-telling is technology, cooking and clothing and buildings are inherently technological. Technology is about solving an existing problem in a practical way. Climate change is an existing problem, perhaps the largest we have ever faced.
It's going to take massive technological innovation to replace our existing technology with technology that can allow us to live both comfortably and in an environmentally friendly way. Existing technology can't really do this, and abruptly stripping people of technology they've come to depend on will almost certainly lead to massive numbers of people dying. But continuing to use the technology we currently rely on will do the same. We can get ideas from known technologies, but I don't think we can simply drop them in to solve all our problems. At the least, too much knowledge about some of these technologies has already been lost. But they also were never designed to grapple with the issue of climate change.