Have we already lost?

Global temperatures have been rising for a while now. One technological fix is to create more efficient, cleaner energy sources. “‘This report makes it clear: There is no way to mitigate climate change without getting rid of coal,’ said Drew Shindell, a climate scientist at Duke University,” (Davenport 2). This is just one example of how cleaner energy sources could help. This fix would have to extend to more efficient transportation and infrastructure as well, according to the IPCC Special Report under paragraph C2. Under paragraph C3, the IPCC Special Report mentions carbon dioxide removal to limit the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. As you can see, the proposals are extreme and will take some serious technology. Things like the Paris Agreement are moving toward a socio-technological fix, but getting everyone on board is hard.”’Carbon taxes are political poison because they increase gas prices and electric rates,’ said Myron Ebell,” (Davenport 3). Any move towards higher taxes on emissions is essentially a suicide mission in our political system. Unfortunately, at the moment, more people are concerned with moving up the ladder than fixing these issues.

If we were to base the age of climate science off the time scale we have been talking about with Harari, I would say that it is very young. If we were to base it off climate science progression the past 200 years, I would say that we have come extremely far. Tyndall’s announcement to the Royal Society of London about changes in the atmosphere leading to great changes in the environment was very accurate so we had already began on a correct statement. So, now with the technologies we have to read the climate and to produce clean energy, I would at least say we have moved past the “naive” age of climate science.