Will there be a technology fix to the climate emergency?

Is there a technology fix for the climate emergency? It’s a question that’s on a lot of people’s minds. In a recent episode of Slate’s Political Gabfest podcast, host David Plotz said that he was so depressed by the inaction from politicians on the environment that his only hope of averting a catastrophe was a technological breakthrough.

I can understand where this desire comes from. The environmental destruction that humanity will face if temperatures rise by more than two degrees is scary. It will mean very destructive weather, huge displacement of people, food scarcity, political unrest and loss of life. It’s completely understandable to want a scientist in a lab somewhere to suddenly discover a way out of this.

The complete political paralysis on the issue of climate change encourages this kind of thinking. Politicians either deny the plainly obvious danger of rising global temperatures or acknowledge that it is a problem, but are completely ineffectual at delivering a solution. Even the Green Party, who acknowledge that the climate emergency is the biggest political issue of the day, are unable to gain much attention and are more likely to be in the news discussing Brexit than the environment. It seems more realistic to expect a Hail Mary technological solution to appear instead of a political one.

Transformative technology

It’s possible that a completely transformative technology will solve all of our problems. Maybe scientists will discover a stable and safe way to do nuclear fusion. This would produce vast amounts of power by turning hydrogen into helium and produce little or no waste. This technology has been 30 years away since the 1970s and despite significant recent breakthroughs it might not appear before we do irreversible damage to the environment.

Where we get our power from is only one thing that has to change to solve the climate emergency. Plastic waste, vehicle and factory emissions and other problems need to be tackled. In every area, there is a technology that could save us, but we cannot rely on them being ready in time. Also, securing funding for the research that produces these technologies is a political decision that must be weighed against other priorities from providing social care to education.

There is certainly a role for technology in the fight against a climate apocalypse. More and better sources of clean energy would be helpful. However, we must acknowledge that the climate emergency is a political issue. There are political barriers to getting more of our power from renewable energy or recycling more or having more environmentally buildings.

Fundamentally a political problem

There is no guarantee that technology can save us. Even if the technology to fix the problems was available, there is a political challenge to get it adopted. Say, for example, France cracks nuclear fusion and can produce unlimited clean energy. Would Russia and China forgo their ability to produce their own power and be beholden to France to keep the lights on? Would France share the technology for nuclear fusion, which as a source of nearly unlimited power could also be a source of nearly unlimited destruction? These are political questions.

A technology solution to the climate emergency is popular because we can’t imagine an alternative, i.e. the people of the world coming together to fix the problem. Across the world, from Washington to Manila we are led by leaders who sow division and don’t try to bring people together. Tackling climate change, and even whether you think it’s a problem or not, has become another thing that divides us. Another chit in our endless culture war.

Political change and not technological change

The solution to the climate emergency is political change and not a technological one. Technology certainly has a role to play, but the change that is needed in the world is political. Preventing more than two degrees of global warming is a decision about what we do with our resources, which is at its root a political question.

The popularity of a technological fix to the climate emergency shows how scary it is and how low people’s expectations of a political solution are. We cannot allow our fears to get the better of us in this way. We need political action to avoid disaster.

  "Powerplant" by Nucho is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0