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Comment by silverquiet | Hacker News Reader

It's entirely possible that there is an Einstein or two working in climate science and telling us to cut down on CO2 emissions.

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There could be a Tesla or Edison waiting to be born that could solve the problem.

There could be as much as there couldn't be one. Betting on a black swan event like a yet unborn baby that will become the Tesla/Edison/Newton/Einstein/Mozart of climate engineering to solve an issue that will destroy the fabric of modern society while taking a lot of Earth's life in the process is just stupid.

Wishful thinking won't take us anywhere, we need to work with the reality we have right now not with extraordinary potential saviours might provide if they ever exist...

I feel like that would actually be a white swan event. But yes, to me it essentially sounds like an alcoholic with a failing liver saying they can keep drinking because someone is going to invent a cure for cirrhosis any day now.

You should have children because having children is the most amazing thing a person can do.

I was just making the point that people aren't necessarily a net detriment. If people honestly believed that you'd see mass suicides as well.

There isn't going to be a "Climate Engineering Messiah". We know what we have to do already, and it will take everyone cooperating to make it happen.

There are no technological solutions? Cold fusion? Electric cars with no drawbacks? Near perfect efficiency solar power? Tidal/wave power?

No. An Einstein would be giving us the technology to do so practically. Telling us to cut down on CO2 emissions is, quite frankly, useless. We don't exactly have a shortage of pundits in 2024.

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