Techno fixes can address ongoing climate change and environmental concerns in a number of ways, namely reducing human impact on the environment and allowing much of the gases we emit that are taxing the ecosystem to be absorbed and broken down at a rate that the environment can handle. To accomplish this, serious action needs to be taken within the next decade (involving sociological fixes such as taxing the economy in industries that contribute to greenhouse gases, such as power generation, meat, etc) and other measures to reduce carbon emissions. Organizations such as the World Coal Association want to push techno fixes such as carbon capture technology to offset the pollution caused by coal (Davenport, 2), but let’s face it, it’d be less stupid and better for everyone if we researched fusion and renewable energy more, as they’re clearly wanting to cover their moneybags here. Politically, combating climate catastrophe has been difficult, especially with the current administration in office (Davenport, 2). Similarly, another socio-technological political fix is taxing the hell out of carbon to stop people from vomiting it into our atmosphere, but Myron Ebell, head of the energy program at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (seriously, can these cats get even fatter?) (Davenport, 4) says “cArBon TaXEs aRe pOliTiCaL pOisOn”. Yeah, well how about the actual poison that’s going to screw up the planet you live on, Ebell?
The Paris Agreement isn’t enough either (Davenport, 3) and won’t reduce emissions by enough in the time we have. Short of some really amazing carbon-capture materials and giant industrial rigs built everywhere, especially at key pollution points, to suck in copious amounts of air to scrub carbon out of them, I don’t have much hope for being able to ride out the coming decades. Flooding, loss of coastal assets, migration crises are coming, and they’re going to hurt.
The statement that climate change science is a new science isn’t even true because John Tyndall, a physicist in the 19th century, brought to the attention of the scientific community the effects of greenhouse gases and how changes to the atmosphere would produce ‘great effects on the terrestrial rays and produce corresponding changes of climate’ (Reidy, 13). These findings culminated from research experimentation with gases in the attic of the Royal Institution, where he found that certain gases such as carbon dioxide had more of a proclivity to absorbing infrared radiation (heat) than the main gases that compose our atmosphere, oxygen and nitrogen.