Didn't realize I was going to have a defend a PHD dissertation with my comment, especially since I don't claim to be an expert on climate change or anything, this is mainly what I've gathered from a few books and many articles and news stories I've read.

The biggest problem I see with 'technology will solve everything' beliefs (evidence-based beliefs are still beliefs) is that these solutions are almost always in a people and political vacuum. They assume that there will be nothing stopping or slowing it down or even reversing it from happening, from people not wanting wind farms in their back yard[1], to human nature prioritizing short-term issues over long-term threats[2][3] and voting accordingly[4], the inability for a people to enforce change on a global level (even if the US behaves perfectly, how are they going to get China[5] or India[6] to go to zero emissions without going to war with them...we saw this exact problem play out with the Covid pandemic, although the US was one of those bad actors). And politicians themselves have little-to-no incentives to stop climate change[7].

You even got people like Biden, who says "climate change is the number one issue facing humanity"[8], and yet he's caught falling asleep at the COP26 climate summit[9] (which does not help the image of how seriously the US is treating climate change) as well as approving new drilling permits for oil and gas extraction, at a faster rate than even Trump[10]. And lobbyists are able to kill climate change legislation just by putting some cash in the right politician's hands (Manchin in this case)[11].

There's other issues with the actual feasibility of the technology as well, such as we might not have enough materials for all the solar panels and wind turbine we'll need to build[12] (and the actual study they cite here[13]). But that's really a whole separate thing I don't have time to hunt down the articles for right now.

We wouldn't be in this mess in the first place if it weren't for people's actions, and now fans of the technology think everyone is going to magically do a full 180 on their behavior and fall in line for something they can't even see beyond some wildfires and stronger hurricanes, which they dismiss as freak events just as easily and keep their heads in the sand.

If anything it appears to me that we're going to wrong direction as far as the human and political element is concerned. Yes, some things are getting better, but we need massive global systemic change decades ago and that's clearly still not happening today, despite great progress on Solar and Wind affordability and EV cars (as well as other initiatives).

I'm not saying we shouldn't pursue these technological solutions as much as we can, far from it. I just think because of various reasons it's not going to get us to where we need to be, and more work needs to be done on trying to rewrite the brains and incentive-structures of people and politicians or we're almost certainly not going to meet those goals, and that's being glossed over in favor of saying "well, technically it can still be done!"

[1]: https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2021-4-fall/feature/nimby-...

[2]: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=553048...

[3]: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190109-the-perils-of-sh...

[4]: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/13/the-no-1-esg-issue-for-ameri...

[5]: https://e360.yale.edu/features/despite-pledges-to-cut-emissi...

[6]: https://www.reuters.com/world/india/exclusive-india-may-buil...

[7]: https://theconversation.com/cop26-why-politicians-have-littl...

[8]: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/24/joe-biden-climate-change-is-...

[9]: https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/11/02/joe-biden-doz...

[10]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/01/2...

[11]: https://www.npr.org/2021/12/20/1065695953/build-back-better-...

[12]: https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a25576543/re...

[13]: https://www.metabolic.nl/publication/metal-demand-for-renewa...