What can you do about climate change? Plenty, and no one is talking about it
It’s not about carbon footprint
We all know we have a problem with fossil fuels. You may think the problem is carbon, and you are partially correct. We burn carbon, it goes into the atmosphere, traps heat, and the earth warms up. The result is climate change. Most people get this by now.
But the real problem is something else — we simply can’t live without fossil fuels. Indeed, our need for energy exposes the fundamental problem with the “leave it in the ground” mantra. We can’t start by leaving it in the ground because to start there means serious human needs cannot be met — heat, transportation, food production and acquisition, cooking, lighting, computing, and more. Without an alternative source of energy in place, “leaving the oil in the ground” provokes a perceived existential crisis. People perceive that their survival is at stake. And they are right. We need heat, cooling, transportation, food, etc. to live our lives. These are basic needs we cannot live without. Yet the way we meet those needs is causing the planet to burn up. That is our fossil fuels problem.
One would think that given this problem, the answer is obvious. We need a different way of meeting these essential human needs. And yet, if you talk about technology as an answer…
