I’ve been thinking a lot about doom.
Last month, The Washington Post published an op-ed by Georgetown’s Dagomar Degroot titled “Our planet is not doomed. That means we can, and must, act.” As someone who has long preferred a less catastrophist flavor of climate advocacy, I was inclined towards much of Degroot’s argument:
New research suggests that if we stop releasing more greenhouse gases than environments—and perhaps new technologies—can absorb, the Earth will soon stop warming. How soon would depend on whether we also stop emitting aerosol pollutants and on natural variability in the Earth’s climates. Yet we are not committed to a much hotter future.
But how prevalent is the “climate doomism” that Degroot describes, and what are its effects?
Read Full Article »