[jl6]

It gives some people comfort to think that complex problems have simple solutions. If it’s just the fault of the billionaires, that’s a small group that can be relatively easily targeted.

The alternative is facing the uncomfortable truth that climate change is the aggregate of small decisions made every day by every human, and there is no single action that will address it.

[myshpa]

Climate change is a symptom of overshoot of the carrying capacity our our environment.

The financial system is based on growth, with the majority of money (97% IIRC) being debts we must repay with interest.

This leads to exponential growth, which is unsustainable in a finite environment (thus overshooting the carrying capacity).

https://futureearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/great_acc...

Billionaires are simply skilled players amassing virtual wealth in someone else's computer by extracting existing resources.

To really solve this, we must change the game, diminish ourselves and eliminate the pressures of exponential growth.

[goatlover]

It's not clear why we need to do this when the alternative is decarbonizing using cleaner technologies, then going heavy on carbon capture once that technology matures. Carrying capacity isn't fixed, it changes depending on how we produce food and other goods. Energy isn't fixed either, because we have the sun, which can provide all the energy we need short of a future science fiction scenario where we outgrow the solar system. I don't think that's a real concern right now.

And even in a science fiction scenario where we become a type 2 civilization, it's not clear that's a bad thing assuming we can expand to nearby star systems. Robin Hanson's Grabby Alien solution to the Fermi Paradox suggests this is what civilizations will do, and we might as well grab up as much real estate until we come into contact with the other expanding spheres of alien expansion (granted this is very long term).

[myshpa]

> when the alternative is decarbonizing using cleaner technologies

There (might not be) enough fossil fuels left, and EROI is falling fast, so the question is whether we'd able to do this before the energy runs out and our economy will be forcibly reduced by nature.

> carbon capture once that technology matures

I'm worried that's just a technological pipedream. No such technology will probably exist for decades at the scale needed. We'd need millions of such factories. In fact, we already have such "technology", it's called forests ... but we're not doing that either.

> Carrying capacity isn't fixed

No, it's not. We've extended it in the past, but now it seems that it started decline ... and might enter freefall soon. I'd suggest this for more info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPb_0JZ6-Rc

> energy isn't fixed either

Yes, and it's heating the planet and oceans 100x more than what we're consuming now. 5 atomic bombs every second now, is it? I'm aware that 254x254 km2 of solar panels would be enough for all our energy needs (except storage) ... but we're far from that. Even in the most optimistic scenarios we're targeting 25-30% of renewable energy in 2050 ... not really enough.

> science fiction scenario where we become a type 2 civilization

I'd like us to get there. But we might as well be at the end of the runway, looking at the great filter with our own eyes right now.