Will Humans Adapt to Climate Change?
I’m increasingly of the mindset that it may be too late to do anything about climate change as we’re already starting to watch the glaciers melt away. Add to this the fact that there’s too much infrastructure in place with no quick global replacement to fossil fuels and the picture becomes worse. So it’s interesting for me to watch this video with Stewart Brand interviewing archaeologist Sander van der Leeuw and talking about this critical topic.
Brand changed my life at the of the 80s when he wrote his book the Media Lab which launched my adult career in new media (which is now over twenty years old), and of course he influenced a generation with his earlier work The Whole Earth Catalog. So when he has something to say I stop and listen.
And these days Brand is making waves again: For starters he embracing the very anti-hippy notions of genetically modified crops and expanding the use of nuclear power. In addition to that he’s also opening the door to the concept of geoengineering, which is the concept of humans changing the environment. At this I’m not sure if I’m sold on everything Brand is presenting (example: how do we deal with nuclear waste?), but once again he’s opened my mind.