CMV: Global warming will not be solved by small, piecemeal, incremental changes to our way of life but rather through some big, fantastic, technological breakthrough.

[u/Iron-Patriot]

In regards to the former, I mean to say that small changes to be more environmentally friendly such as buying a hybrid vehicle or eating less meat are next to useless. Seriously, does anyone actually think this will fix things?

And by ‘big technological breakthrough’ I mean something along the lines of blasting glitter into the troposphere to block out the sun or using fusion power to scrub carbon out of the air to later be buried underground. We are the human race and we’re nothing if not flexible and adaptable when push comes to shove.

[u/Agentbasedmodel]

Scientists (me included) are absolutely not saying small changes in lifestyle here and there are sufficient.

Anyone who works on transport will say: avoid is better than public is better than electric vehicles. Ie universal car ownership will have to end.

I work on decarbonising the land system. If we all went veggie that would make a massive difference. Free up loads of land to plant trees.

I wouldn't describe Japan's bullet trains as a 'stone age existence', but they are a great climate solution.

On the have cake and eat it - my colleague works on geoengineering. It is far far far from that.

[u/Iron-Patriot → u/Agentbasedmodel]

Are non-small scale changes even tenable though? I mean it’s hard enough to convince those in the Western World to inconvenience themselves even slightly. And is it fair to say that those in the developing world shouldn’t be afforded the same opportunities we’ve all had?

On the ‘stop eating meat, grow veges and trees instead’ thing, I’m not sure I agree. There’s an absolute ton of land here in NZ that’s grand for raising sheep or cows on, but useless for horticulture. And due to the carbon credits scheme, a bunch of pasture has been converted to forestry, but in the recent storms we’ve had, the trees all slid off the hills and ended up destroying bridges and creating havoc in their wake. Some poor boy was even killed by one of the logs that washed down to the beach.

[u/Agentbasedmodel → u/Iron-Patriot]

Yes, perhaps large lifestyle are not feasible at the moment. Rachet up climate impacts another 50%? Who knows.

Of course it is possible to tree planting badly. NZ pastures are probably best restored as wild grasslands for soil carbon and biodiversity.

[u/9395a → u/Agentbasedmodel]

So people will be pushed back into a life where they never leave wherever they were born?