(498b) Climate Disaster or Not? Using Science, Philosophy, and Psychology to Comprehend the Future of Humankind on a Warming Planet

Anthropogenic climate change poses a serious threat to humanity and Earth as we know it. For several decades, the accepted approach for mitigating climate change has been focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. What we need to do, climate activists claim, is to avoid using energy where we can, use existing energy more efficiently, and to convert energy sources from fossil fuels to renewables. Although these conservation and technical solutions are available, for a cost, they are not being implemented nearly fast enough. Considering the potentially massive magnitude and scope of climate change, assuredly altering human life and the entire Earth in profound ways, it is worth taking a step back and looking at climate change with a broader lens.

Drawing on knowledge from science, philosophy, and psychology, this presentation examines the likely outcomes of climate change, what it means if we fail to mitigate it, and why so little progress is being made. By accepting the limitations of human behavior and society, mitigation measures are discussed that better align with humans’ evolutionary psychology and our existing institutions. Engineering solutions are emphasized, specifically carbon capture and storage, carbon dioxide removal, and geoengineering. While these solutions are no panacea and come with their own challenges—technical, economical, and philosophical—they will continue humanity’s long history of mastering the environment to enable progress.