46 6. QUESTION 2
Before moving on to the next major question and chapter we can gain some benefit by
looking at the serious problem of climate change. Climate change and global warming are serious
issues that, despite some resistance, clearly meet the criteria in the previous chapter of being
lasting, serious, and certain. With that in mind, we can start by looking at the suggested solutions
from Santen et al. [71]. Based on their book title (2030 Technologies that Will Change the World),
Santen and his colleagues are believers in technical solutions! In addition to their promotion of
new technologies as the solution to the climate change problem, quoting Schellnhuber (one of
many they interviewed for their book) they discuss the need for “Changing Society.” Specifically,
a “different type of social cohesion: We have to shape people’s preferences” is called for by them,
in other words, behavioral changes. We need technical solutions, but those solutions must fit
into the culture, even if it means changing the culture to accept the technical solution! ey go
on to say “Sociologists, philosophers, theologians, and people of good will need to get together.”
We believe this latter statement is very important as alternative solutions will best come from
diverse groups of people working together.
6.3 SUMMARY
Now, as a segue into the next chapter/question let’s briefly look at the concept of “Geo-
engineering” [25]. Geoengineering solutions propose large-scale solutions to the large-scale
problem of climate change due to global warming. Two approaches mentioned for quickly cool-
ing the planet include increasing the brightness of clouds and injecting the stratosphere with
particles to increase the reflectivity of the Earth. We are talking global-scale changes to the
Earth! is is quite a contrast to the discussion by Santen and Schellnhuber [71, 72] who stay
close to more traditional-scale solutions. e significant issue brought up by Goodell [25] is the
great uncertainty in how these potential global-scale solutions will ultimately impact the Earth.
Which leads us to the next question: How confident are we that our solutions will work? at
is the topic of the next chapter.
..................Content has been hidden....................
You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.