The rising global temperature is arguably the most severe environmental and ecological issue we face today. “Global warming is likely to reach 1.5 degrees Celsius between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the current rate (high likelihood)” (IPCC). The rise in global temperature is leading to the melting of glaciers and ice sheets which leads to rising sea levels. Arctic species are on a decline and other species are moving further and further north to the cooler areas. There are proposed technological fixes as well as tech-fixes that have already been enacted to slow down rise in global temperature. A proposed idea is to create a massive tax on greenhouse gas emissions thus forcing people to come up with or use alternative forms of energy. There have already been many measures taken by many individual people do to their part in slowing down the rise in temperature such as powering their homes with solar energy. Measures have also been taken by government to regulate industries responsible for massive amounts of carbon dioxide emissions such as the auto industry having regulations on vehicle emissions as well as manufacturing plants having regulations on their emissions.
I think it is possible to decrease the amount of harmful emissions into the atmosphere which would in turn result in slowing down the increase in the global temperature, but I think that it is unrealistic to completely cease the global rise in temperature by 2040- 2052. The effects of terrestrial rays producing corresponding changes in climate was discovered by John Tyndall in 1861, although I don’t believe that climate change science and all of the worldwide effects of climate change date back to 1861. I do believe that the severity of the issue in more recent history, along with media, has generated large scale interest in climate change resulting in a relatively new science and understanding of it. Socio-technological fixes would be a major factor in slowing down the rise in temperature. The rise in temperature is directly related to humans, and humans are the ones who will need to devise techno-fixes and implement societal changes to slow down climate change. A socio-technological fix may be as extreme as not allowing anybody to own a gas powered vehicle. It would force the auto industry to create affordable vehicles on a massive scale that are powered by alternative energies. I do not think that any casual, or slow progressing techno-fixes will have any effect on the rise in temperature before 2040. A few people powering their homes with solar energy in the wealthy neighborhoods of the United States, or the owners of new $80,000 hybrid suburban’s wont slow down the rise in global temperature at all by 2040. The only way we can have an impact by 2040 is to implement many, very drastic lifechanging societal techno-fixes, society would have to completely change (which is very unlikely to happen). The tax as mentioned above would have to be one of the many implementations. “Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius would require rapid, far reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society” (IPCC).