Techno-fixes can potentially address rising temperature through capturing greenhouse gases that are have been known to assist in global warming, e.g., methane or carbon dioxide. According to the IPCC Press Release article, “The good news is that some of the kinds of actions that would be needed to limit global warming… are already underway” (IPCC Press Release, 2). While that’s all well and good, and heartening, the rate at which our society is attempting to repair the environment does not match the rate at which we destroy it. Therefore, we must speed up reclamation projects and technological fixes if we have any hope at nipping global warming in the bud. Honestly, I think in order to prevent such detrimental environmental damages from occurring, nations would need to be willing to work together. I think there could be a technological fix implemented, however it would need to be amply researched and widely agreed upon.
It’s easy to say that climate science is a new science, because it seems not to have been studied, however, that simply isn’t true. Humans have been taking note of changes in their environment since at least the first industrial revolution. Scientist John Tyndall had a lot to do with climate scientist. He was an avid outdoorsman and conducted experiments on heat produced by atmospheric gases (Reidy, 1). If that sounds familiar, it’s because modern scientists have performed countless experiments on greenhouse gases and the atmosphere. A geographic locations climate is defined as its weather for a period of about thirty years. Global warming critics that claim that climate science is too new to really be credible clearly haven’t done their homework. John Tyndall and his work is even a bit older than Gregor Mendel and his work with genetics and heredity. Therefore, while climate science can certainly be called one of the newer branches of science, it certainly can’t be considered an infant.
Great post this week Colleen! Your discussion about techno-fixes is thorough and well thought out. Also I think you are absolutely correct that the rate at which we put greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere far exceeds the rate at which we are reducing our carbon footprint or installing technology to clean up the atmosphere. Furthermore, I admire your optimism for techno-fixes being a large help for a cleaner future as well as the stress you put on the necessity for these technologies having exceptional research done and wide agreement on implementation. Along with the remediation and technological projects you mentioned how do you see fixes which address social issues fit into the climate change mitigation/adaptation conversation? Will social change have to occur along with technological change? Are there steps you could see society taking which may have significant positives to limiting climate change?