Not to age myself, but there was a movie called Dirty Harry, where Clint Eastwood is a cop who just took down a bunch of bad guys and there is one left who might be desperate enough to see if Clint has one bullet left in his gun and he asks if the guy wants to take a chance; he doesn’t.
Well, in the case of climate change, I just read Bill Gates new book ‘How to avoid a Climate disaster’ and I keep asking, do I feel lucky? If you look at the top of the Resources page on this website, you will see another book ‘Life After Warming’ which I note is scientifically correct but very dark. So dark that one tends to fuzz out on how bad it could get. In the Gates book, he does such a good job getting into the details of how hard it will be to get to zero emissions, I got a bit depressed. He remains optimistic, and although I think mankind will get there eventually, as I note on the home page of this site, things are going to get pretty bad. So the question is, ‘Do I feel lucky?’, or do I prepare for what is likely to be a very challenging future.
If you are following climate change and interested in getting a very thorough perspective, I strongly recommend reading the book. That said, remember my blog on cumulative vulnerability, because to get to the world he aspires to, will require that everything goes right and I see that as something of a long shot. My fingers are crossed but meanwhile, I will continue to build out my Washington project as a hedge. Question is: What are you going to do?
SZ