Can technology alone really correct climate change?
Climate activists can be forgiven for not believing in a technological magic bullet. What they propose instead are immediate consumption cuts
On climate change, leaders have a tendency to make lofty, long-term promises but take only baby steps to reach them. At the UN climate summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave an interesting explanation as to why: they believe technology eventually will pick up the slack. This represents an ideological divide with environmental advocates, who don’t put much stock in the inevitability of technological progress and would rather support fail-safe curbs on consumption now.
Merkel was responding to an address by the young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who said world leaders aren’t doing enough to reach the goal set out in the Paris climate agreement: to limit global warming to 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century...
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