The article is careful to point out that extreme engineering won't stop what we've already done, but I can't help and feel entirely excited by the prospect. There are several reasons: 1) if it gets to the point where we have to build artificial trees and launch mirrors and sunshields, then there's absolutely no denying that it's real, 2) global crises have the potential to unify people that wouldn't unify over anything else, and 3) it's so very scifi-- it forces us along the path to a more technologised world, and will require that we advance the tech that helps us survive and minimize the tech that will add to what's killing us, and it will hopefully lead to an aesthetic that can be called futuristic. I mean, how awesome will it be to have giant orbiting sunshields? Massive artificial trees scrubbing the atmosphere? Controlled algae blooms and artificial volcanic eruptions altering global chemistry? Right now, we're posied to learn how to control all the processes and resources of our whole planet, and we're at a time where it will soon be necessary; once we get that down, it'll be easier to move onto other worlds because we'll have geoengineering and can therefore terraform. Voila! Perpetual survival!
I wish it wouldn't have to come to this, but people as a whole are short-sighted, and I'm more than confident that it will. Those in power will continue to ignore the signs until something so drastic that we can't ignore it anymore will force us to notch up our technology, or we'll all die off like dinosaurs who didn't have the option. I'd prefer to think we're smart enough to think our way out of any problem and survive, as a species, indefinitely.
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