Humans are great and making things. Making collective decisions that might make everyone’s lives suck more in the short term and possibly not make much difference in the long term isn’t interesting to a lot of people. The only real way to reduce carbon emissions is via innovation. If you care about climate change stop protesting and start innovating.
Climate change is an unpriced economic externality. It's a political problem, not a technical problem.
If you want innovation, then create a market incentive for it. But that requires pushing bills that would wreck the prospects of oil companies, and cause trillions of stranded assets, so they lobby against it.
Since there are no alternatives for the most part, this just becomes a lossy income redistribution program (with lots of opportunity for corruption). Also, as governments can simply decree who has to pay it and who is exempt it has the net effect of centralizing government power. If you want empirical evidence, just see what is happening in Canada.
> If you care about climate change stop protesting and start innovating.
The reason for climate change isn't a lack of technical innovation. We have ALL the innovations to change things. The reason for climate change is short-sighted greed, and a lack of political will, not a lack of scientific or technological capability.
It has so far. As things shift digitally and with AI augmenting human capability, there’s less of a physical limit. Perhaps it’s not possible to grow forever but I wouldn’t bet on it stopping anytime soon.
Almost any law we take for granted goes against the will of at least some part of the electorate.
There are more than enough maniacs who would love nothing better than being allowed to put the pedal to the metal whenever they feel like it, and who don't give a damn about other peoples safety and lives be damned.
There are also people who would like to live in a society where they are allowed to hit (or do worse things to) anyone that annoys them for whatever reason.
There are people who think slavery is a great idea, or who think women should be subservient to men.
