Thoughts from a Sunday morning coffee break… ☕
Firstly, the initial premise of the question, (I would contend) is somewhat logically faulty. The Earth is ~4.5by (billion years) old, and was trundling along in her orbit and spinning rather finely without the advent of human life that came along with the first bipedal and opposable-y thumbed skinny and podgy little apes, that were the nascent beginnings of our ancestral lineage some roughly 1.2my (million years) ago.
So in combatting the climate crisis by switching our power supplies to more renewable and sustainable solutions, insulating our homes, engaging in more sustainable construction practices, and shouting from the rooftops about the desperate human need for net zero, what we’re really doing is trying to save a (omni+)suicidal species from themselves – saving the human race (one that does not want, nor asks to be saved, and fights tooth and nail against any form of change [nimby-ism, concern for nature as a form of dog whistling over actualised real estate value concerns], etcetera) from within. Although they demonstrate time and again, thanks to religious, dogmatic, literalist, eschatology, quite often people and organisations make the task far, far more difficult, sometimes near-impossible, even, than it needs to be.
Secondly, the pursuit of the scientific method and pure research is not an either/or question. It is and always has been a symbiotic trickle down relationship between both activities.
“Why not both?” – Ask any child. (Whether it’s Haribo, Ice cream flavours, or geo-engineering options…) 🐥👶🏻🤱🏻⚖
Gaia (another ancient name for Earth) is quite happy to shake us off like a smelly dog with a bad case of fleas, and nurture once again another species from scratch, or just have a world ruled over by bacteria around sub-sea fumaroles and radiation eating, cenote dwelling archea.
So we will most likely attempt both, with the time we have left, before the climate crisis swings beyond all possible opportunities for applicable remediation. 🪦📈📊📉🪨🌎
“panem et circenses…”
—Juvenal, Satire 10.77–81.