alt Hacker NewsNow you're confusing "solvable" with "solved". Different concepts!
Of course a lot of work would be needed. The work, however, would be justified and very likely rewarded. There don't appear to be any showstoppers that would prevent it from succeeding.
The ultimate problem is one of collective action, internalizing costs that are now externalized. We've solved problems like this before, globally for example with the ban on CFCs. Here the costs and stakes are even higher.
Fossil fuel use will ultimately drive some countries near the equator to such levels of heating that life will become difficult or impossible. India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons, so they (particularly India, which has hydrogen bombs and a much larger economy) can threaten to kick over the global card table if the problem is not effectively addressed.
The issue is that many players are already defacto bankrupt (from a people starving to death/poverty perspective) even while externalizing the costs of fossil fuels.
Like India, Pakistan, many parts of China, Russia, etc.
So easy to say, hard to do. And it’s hard to say that threatening to nuke everyone is going to apply the right kind of leverage, if say India is already starting to drown. Wouldn’t it be better for everyone else then to take their nukes (or nuke them in advance) and let them drown?
Even if others haven’t gotten that far in their line of thinking, I’m guessing India sure has.
The CFC coalition was nothing compared to what will be required to deal with this situation - and notably, the CFC issue still isn’t really solved. Just mostly under control.
We’ll see how this plays out.