The Climate Crisis Is an Opportunity
As the Chinese language does not say, every crisis is an opportunity. The climate crisis is a great opportunity to make the 21st century much better than before. So why are we so attached to 19th-century technology?
I wonder if, in the early 1900s they were still bemoaning the decline of whale oil and horsepower. For whale oil, you had to find and kill a fucking whale, and horses shat everywhere. I feel like people gladly transitioned to new sources of energy, and new ways to live. New energy literally gives a society new energy.
Today, in the early 2000s we’re at a similar inflection point. Renewable energy has advanced to a dramatic level and we can now, with a little more capital investment, switch to completely renewable by 2050. We must switch in order to avoid catastrophic climate damage, but at the same time, what an opportunity.
Do we really want to go into the future using the same ancient technology we were using over 100 years ago? Digging up poisonous rocks, drilling for flammable liquids? Why are we even talking about this like it’s a sacrifice? Fossil fuels are not only destroying the earth, but they’re also destroying our imaginations.
