Lately I’ve been thinking, in overly simplistic terms, about how to frame a response to climate change that focuses on only two questions.
The questions are:
- What emissions reductions are capable of being achieved with existing technology?
- How can we more rapidly test and adopt new emissions-reducing technology?
The thing about simplicity is that it clarifies matters. Gone is any question of despair, of inertia, of policy, of finger-pointing responsibility. The question focuses on what we can do, in a way that implies direct responsibility.
The two questions focus on two things, the future and the present. The truth is, there are a myriad of things that can be done to reduce carbon emissions using present technology – they are simply not being done.
New technology is being developed that could help in the fight. But many developments come with traps that make their implementation less than perfect.
Nevertheless these are good questions to be asking. These two questions together could form the basis of our family business’s response to climate change – to reduce our environmental footprint by at least 1% per year.