I believe Carrol's correct. We won't act until this problem is actually biting us hard in the ass.
That said the point of political action isn't negated.
Such a change could mean the difference between cutting one leg off beneath us or cutting both off beneath us. Besides, everyone needs a hobby and Carrol doesn't collect coins or restore Edsels.
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I agree.
The irony here is that Carrol routinely admonishes us to sow seeds for the political future instead of getting too caught up with current conditions. The idea apparently being that the time is not yet right for the sort of changes most of us would like to see. If we've done this background work, when the time *is* right, we (or our movement descendants) will be in a better position to offer genuine alternatives.
At least, that's the 'theory'.
As I see it, discussions of, and projects towards carbon neutral technologies are the intellectual and engineering equivalents of the political prep work Carrol insists is an absolute necessity. He dismisses it all as "cloud-cuckoo land" nonsense even though it's precisely the sort of thing that seems so urgent in the purely political context.
How can 'we' hope to salvage the situation if, when the shit hits the fan, we haven't done our homework?
And by the way Carrol, 'we' can be everything and everyone from a hobbyist working on hydrogen enhanced combustion to the folks at Grist.org to a firm making highly efficient, super-conducting power lines. All this and much more is just the sort of work necessary to prepare for a changed planetary situation.
.d.