The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming

There are many ways individuals view climate change, and it is within these separate contexts that solutions are proposed. For example, some view it as strictly a problem of nature—that a warming planet is a consequence of natural atmospheric cycles rather than anthropogenic factors. By that logic, humans need not change their behavior because, eventually, global temperatures will cycle back down. This perspective is shared by many climate deniers. Others, particularly in Silicon Valley, view climate change as a problem to be solved primarily by cutting-edge technology. This perspective is perhaps best articulated by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who believes, in Wallace-Wells’s paraphrasing, “that climate change has already been solved, in the sense that a solution has been made inevitable by the speed of technological change” (171).

Still others argue that individual consumption habits are the prime drivers of climate change, and that only with changes to consumer behavior—like driving less and eating vegan—will climate change be solved. This view is shared by individuals on both the left and the right, politically speaking. On the left, this argument takes the form of conscientious consumers who evangelize about the benefits of meatless diets and carpooling. On the right, it takes the form of individuals criticizing environmental activists like Al Gore for riding on private jets.