I saw this NYT article, written by a scientist with Stage IV cancer, getting shared quite a bit, and I finally got around to reading it. Some really good perspectives on the environment and technology. Among the interesting tidbits:
On climate change and extremism:
“The worst impacts will be felt by the world’s poorest, who are already under immense stress and have meager resources to help them adapt to the changes. They will see themselves as innocent victims of the developed world’s excesses. Looking back, the causes of the 1789 French Revolution are not a mystery to historians; looking forward, the pressure cooker for increased radicalism, of all flavors, and conflict could get hotter along with the global temperature.”
On engineers being up to the task of coming up with technological solutions to climate change:
“You have only to look at what they achieved during World War II: American technology and production catapulted over what would have taken decades to do under ordinary conditions and presented us with a world in 1945 that was completely different from the late 1930s.”
Obviously not advocating WWII as a good thing, but it is interesting how the greatest of horrors – war – can produce solutions to intractable human issues, and produce societal change, like women going to work. It’s a world of contradictions, isn’t it.