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In this thoughtful, passionate review of The Uninhabitable Earth — written as an open letter to me — @GreenRupertRead, John Foster and @jembendell fault me for being overly optimistic about climate change, especially when it comes to geoengineering. (1/x)
@GreenRupertRead @jembendell This is, to me, a strange critique, since I am not an advocate of geoengineering, and do not suggest at any point in the book that we should go forward with it. I think it's possible we do find ourselves deploying geoengineering in the future, but that prospect terrifies me.
@GreenRupertRead @jembendell I do have some hope in negative emissions — processes, both ecological and technological, that could help draw carbon out of the atmosphere.
@GreenRupertRead @jembendell In the end, that may well prove foolish hope, particularly on the technological side of things—carbon capture is exciting, and I hope it can be deployed at sufficient scale to play a meaningful role in mitigating carbon emissions.
@GreenRupertRead @jembendell But I don't think it is a silver-bullet solution. There is no silver-bullet solution.
@GreenRupertRead @jembendell This point was made eloquently in yesterday's open letter — from @MichaelEMann, @GretaThunberg, @billmckibben, @NaomiAKlein and many others — about natural solutions to climate change. theguardian.com/environment/20…
@GreenRupertRead @jembendell @MichaelEMann @GretaThunberg @billmckibben @NaomiAKlein These natural approaches are, absolutely, a vital part of the path forward. But, as they say, "this approach should not be used as a substitute for the rapid and comprehensive decarbonisation of industrial economies."
@GreenRupertRead @jembendell @MichaelEMann @GretaThunberg @billmckibben @NaomiAKlein But there is a bigger question raised by the authors of the Ecologist letter, one that @jembendell has also raised in his paper "Deep Adaptation." lifeworth.com/deepadaptation…
@GreenRupertRead @jembendell @MichaelEMann @GretaThunberg @billmckibben @NaomiAKlein And that is: should we focus on fighting climate change, through mitigation and decarbonization, or on adapting to a new world, ravaged by climate change?
@GreenRupertRead @jembendell @MichaelEMann @GretaThunberg @billmckibben @NaomiAKlein @jembendell and @GreenRupertRead and John Foster suggest that we should focus on adaptation, indeed "deep adaptation," because "really facing up to climate reality," they write, "means giving up all hope of solutions."
@GreenRupertRead @jembendell @MichaelEMann @GretaThunberg @billmckibben @NaomiAKlein Even talking about the possibility that we could avert catastrophic warming, they write, is a dangerous distraction from the task at hand.
@GreenRupertRead @jembendell @MichaelEMann @GretaThunberg @billmckibben @NaomiAKlein But mitigation vs. adaptation is a false choice. We need both.
@GreenRupertRead @jembendell @MichaelEMann @GretaThunberg @billmckibben @NaomiAKlein The world is already transformed by climate change, and will continue to be transformed in the next decades.
@GreenRupertRead @jembendell @MichaelEMann @GretaThunberg @billmckibben @NaomiAKlein But how much it is transformed — how much carbon we add, how much warmer it gets — is a matter of how we respond. Which is to say, how we mitigate.
@GreenRupertRead @jembendell @MichaelEMann @GretaThunberg @billmckibben @NaomiAKlein I don't believe we have any realistic hope of staying below two degrees celsius this century—a level of warming that is often described as catastrophic, and which the island nations of the world describe as "genocide."
@GreenRupertRead @jembendell @MichaelEMann @GretaThunberg @billmckibben @NaomiAKlein But whether we land at 2 degrees, or 3, or 4—this is a matter of enormous, almost incalculable importance.
@GreenRupertRead @jembendell @MichaelEMann @GretaThunberg @billmckibben @NaomiAKlein Climate change is not binary—not a matter of whether it's here or not, not a matter of whether we're "fucked" or not. It is a function that gets worse over time — creating more warming, and more suffering — the more carbon we put into the atmosphere.
@GreenRupertRead @jembendell @MichaelEMann @GretaThunberg @billmckibben @NaomiAKlein Of course we need to develop strategies of adaptation—the world is already warmer than it has ever been in human history, and so we are already living in unprecedented climate conditions we have not yet developed systems to manage and respond to.
@GreenRupertRead @jembendell @MichaelEMann @GretaThunberg @billmckibben @NaomiAKlein But much more important is marshaling every resource we have to limit the amount of warming that does transpire, so we are adapting to, say, two degrees, not four or five or six. Those degrees of difference will make, literally, a world of difference. (x/x)
