Alex Caliostro wrote:
The problem is, by the time the debate is fully settled it may be too
late to do stave off a catastrophe.
it is already too late
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article312997.ece
It is NEVER too late. If we -- mankind as a whole -- gets serious about
this, we can devise ways to fix just about any problem short of the sun
going supernova.
As I have pointed out previously, we could build space elevators and deploy
gigantic Mylar shields to reduce the solar radiation that reaches the
ground. We could build gigantic CF-powered factories that extract carbon
from the air, or re-freeze billions of tons of ice. There are any number of
ways we can fix problems, if only we put our minds to it and unite. It may
take an effort on the scale of WWII, or ten times that, but it can be done.
Repeat after me: it is NEVER TOO LATE. There is ALWAYS hope. If the first
solution fails there is always another solution, and another, and another.
We are a hardy and clever species, capable of amazing accomplishments. We
have not "come this far through the evolutionary furnace" (as Sam Florman
puts it) to be defeated easily.
We may yet destroy ourselves with global warming or nuclear weapons, but it
is not inevitable.
- Jed
