Guess what happens if they decide to build that fleet of space bubbles: Hooray we can just continue what we were doing. Let‘s burn more oil! Let‘s build bigger cars! Party!
And renewables provide huge opportunities. Do you have any idea what it unlocks if you have unlimited clean energy? You could have massive, vibrant, beautiful cities and agriculture in the middle of the Sahara, and that's just the beginning.
In reality we need structural policies that countries that spearhead pollution (like the USA) will never adopt. America is a car-centric country it is designed that way. Not only that but people expect their deliveries fast and also to be able to get what they want at all times... its a massive cultural shift.
It seems very difficult to stop climate change, i would say impossible, because socially, politically and economically we have built machine that cant be stopped anymore.
Well mines are not pretty. I have gold and coal mines not far from here, and they are ugly.
Go to Biafra and see what the oil industries look like to those places. AN oil spill in an estuary makes a mine look like a park.
> It seems very difficult to stop climate change, i would say impossible, because socially, politically and economically we have built machine that cant be stopped anymore.
Either we stop it, derail it, or burn it down completely. Or we all burn, and it will be worse.
These things are not bad in and of themselves, they are bad because of their externalities.
If we can find a way to offset the negative effects of burning coal, that’s great; it means poor countries can spend more GDP on healthcare and education, and less on upgrading to clean power.
Fossil fuels were never a good idea environmentally and even socially as it concentrated power massively... we just didnt know. You know how romans used to put lead in their drinks because they had become accustomed to the taste? I think our situation is similar.
I think this is due for a much longer discussion but it seems really silly to think we simply ought to repair externalities when theres just so many of them.
Poor countries should spend more in education for sure but, realistically, under our current economic and social systems: is it even desirable? I think the answer is no. Why would you want people who are mining cobalt, young men in many cases (an euphemism for kids) to be educated? Who would want do such an onerous task? If you give these people knowledge then how will that affect the price of these materials?
I mean, as I said in another comment, the inertia of this machine is too much. But, yeah, ideally we could just get rid of externalities and I think in many ways we try to hide them... but it seems to me (and i live in a mining country) the externalities really are much more difficult to deal with than it might seem at first glance.
How is it possible to have a rational debate in the sphere of morals when attitudes like this are not carefully hidden away because those that hold them are so ashamed.
How can it be possible that this year a person here could advocate what is essentially enslaving whole communities to maintain the developed world's standard of living?
The developed world can change life style voluntarily with massive disruption or change with catastrophic disruption.
Trying to keep LDC's down will only make things worse in the future.