Thinking Outside the Sphere

Greg Costikyan has a few proposals on global climate change:

Screw this penny-ante stuff. The likelihood of our being able to dramatically reduce carbon emissions in the short term is nonexistent, particularly given the Chinese.…

Obviously, he's largely kidding, but I suspect that quite a few of his ideas have merit (subsidized rails systems, zeppelins, better/friendlier sources for biofuels; at least.) Reading his rant suggests, to my imagination, at least, that some of the "solutions" to the crisis haven't thought far enough outside of the box.

I'm a fan of old-skool science fiction — the Asimov's and Bradbury's and Clarke's and whatnot — where no problem was so big that it couldn't be resolved by some creative human ingenuity. There may be real reasons Costikyan's suggestions won't fly — I don't know — but it's refreshing to see some creative thinking, at least.

And, hey, it suggests that the issue is starting to penetrate the mainstream. Back a few years ago, climate change was the poster child issue for media scholars talking about the difficulties for journalists covering science in a scientifically illiterate society.

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