Maybe It Is Time to Stop Building Things with Tailpipes and Smokestacks

I sure like the way Dr. Ken Caldeira thinks.  Those of you familiar with the Myers-Briggs personality test will recognize the man as an “N,” meaning “intuitive”; he forms abstractions that are useful for creating a high level of understanding.  Check this out:

Dr. Ken Caldeira has argued for a policy goal of zero carbon dioxide emissions.

In 2005, he said, “If you’re talking about mugging little old ladies, you don’t say, ‘What’s our target for the rate of mugging little old ladies?’ You say, ‘Mugging little old ladies is bad, and we’re going to try to eliminate it.’ You recognize you might not be a hundred per cent successful, but your goal is to eliminate the mugging of little old ladies. And I think we need to eventually come around to looking at carbon dioxide emissions the same way.”

In 2014, Caldeira said, “It is time to stop building things with tailpipes and smokestacks. It is time to stop using the sky as a waste dump for our carbon dioxide pollution.” 

Here’s an article on the subject:  “The Darkening Sea” from The New Yorker, November 20, 2006.