The Science Will Always Find a Way Argument
When I come across the global warming discussion there’s another denial argument that keeps popping up claiming that science will find a way. Science always finds a way, right? Just like police shows on television use a just in time approach to crime fighting.
The real flaw with the science will find a way argument is that science is a fickle beast limited by time, resources, will and human abilities. If a meteor was discovered that would hit the earth in two days do you really think that we would send up five guys Hollywood-style to inject a nuclear explosive that might split it in two only seconds before the inevitable impact? No. The fundamental driver of that argument is really – the problem is too big, too hard, too inconvenient and I’d rather not think about it.
If science could just up and solve everything on any given day of history we’d have been immediately catapulted from caves to some future without the pleasure of the Middle Ages. Science is an iterative human endeavour. We need to accept what science can achieve and what its going to have to struggle to achieve regarding global warming. Imagine humanity as billions of tiny consumer addicts – while we’re super addicted we’re hard to help. What science needs us to do is to actually listen to what its telling us now and to change the way we operate.
Much of our problem is because we’ve designed everything ad-hoc since the industrial revolution without thinking about the way we do it. Short term economic exploitation… somebody else can deal with the waste. We need to stop making those kinds of products. We need to stop eating massive amounts of meat from feed lots, driving excessive distances in cars and burning coal to make our energy. Less energy consumption – not massive nuclear power stations. Renewable clean energies are the science answer – sustainable hydro (no dams), wind, wave, solar and geothermal.
Whenever somebody pulls out the science will find a way argument I’d like you to go straight to a toy store and purchase a table tennis paddle. Not a heavy one, but one with nice fresh grippy rubber. Then, as they’re sunbaking under some tree by an oasis, smack their little bottom mercilessly. They’re assholes. Their resistance to the problem is simply an overt attempt to push it off onto other people to deal with. Don’t listen to their bullshit. The rate of change in global temperature is a real issue… a little more food for thought on global warming.
