Here's my list of why we'll fix climate change:
1. Wall Street is now on our side. Clean energy technologies are now mature and cheaper without subsidy than fossil alternatives[1], so the clean energy sector is starting to be viewed by the financial sector more like construction rather than a tech R&D.
2. Insurance and Real Estate are now on our side. The effects of climate change are expected to have a $44 trillion economic downside[2], and that loss is starting to creep into the depreciation terms and insuring everything from crops to real estate.
3. Cleantech now has more jobs. Clean energy now employs more workers (including blue collar local workers) than the coal industry and the upstream oil industry[3]. Also, the advanced energy sector (cleantech + energy efficiency + smartgrid) is now at $1.4 trillion, which is bigger than many other industries like airlines and fashion, and will soon pass the entire media industry[4].
4. Developing countries are now pivoting hard away from fossil fuels. China has pledged to peak emissions by 2030, but it may be as early as 2027[5]. Also, Africa is expected to leapfrog fossil-based generation and go straight to renewables (much like how skipped landlines and went straight to wireless)[6].
Given these allies, who do think is going to win in a policy fight? As powerful as Exxon and BP are, they don't hold a candle to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sacs, China, etc.
So if you were wondering when the turning point for humanity to start taking action, now is that time. Rest assured, you won't have to do anything if you don't want. The people making the money will do it for you.
It's really weird to see the HN community (and tech startups in general) totally not want in on any of that action. Now that the hardware tech is here, cleantech is now basically a scaling exercise, which means efficiency, which means software. There are literally trillions of dollars to be made in cleantech software, yet every time there's a post on climate change on HN it's all doom and gloom.
Come on! We have to replace 87% of our global energy sources in less than 30 years[7]. That's faster growth than the Internet, and it's time for tech startups to cash in on it.
[1]: https://www.lazard.com/media/2390/lazards-levelized-cost-of-...
[2]: http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/18/cost-of-not-acting-on-climate...
[3]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-25/clean-ene...
[4]: http://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2016/03/advanced-energy...
[5]: https://www.carbonbrief.org/climate-pledge-puts-china-on-cou...