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> restructure the global economy to drastically reduce CO2 emission

agreed except that is almost certainly _not_ going to happen until there is a catastrophe of enormous proportions in _industrialized_ nations (tragically, millions dying in Botswana, Bangladesh or Bolivia won't move the needle)

so in the meantime we need the alternatives to put off that catastrophe for as long as we possibly can



Unfortunately in many spaces, we have become reactive, not proactive.

I have long suspected that in a few hundred years they will look back on us as idiots in the same way many do about the astrologer blood letting types.


Slightly different take on it, as I think that some of us already look at others as idiots. So some are ahead of the curve. We're still waiting for the "idiots" to have that aha! moment.


Another alternative is to make carbon neutral alternatives economically advantageous. That is already happening for renewable energy.


As you just said, if we use geoengineering to delay the catastrophe as much as we can, and if we aren't going to wake up until the catastrophe hits ...

... then it's questionable whether geoengineering helps at all, isn't it? All it does is to postpone the inevitable until disasters hit Texas and California, and potentially prolong the misery for Botswana and Bangladesh.


> All it does is to postpone the inevitable

I don't want to repeat all of what I wrote below an older comment dismissing it for a similar reason, but a shorter version of <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40887461> is:

>> Eventually, a new generation [that grew up with climate-saving adaptations like electric cars] replaces the old, but that will not be in time for global warming to remain under the identified likely tipping points. If we can make do with artificial cooling for two or three decades, that may be the crucial amount of time we need to deal with the overshoot.

>> I don't know if we will need this [but we should] consider whether that temporary effect is useful


I tend to agree with this take


cans really enjoy being kicked though, so you have to take their feelings into consideration.




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