Kim Stanley Robinson: Remembering climate change … a message from the year 2071 | TED

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Coming to us from 60 years in the future, legendary sci-fi writer Kim Stanley Robinson tells the "history" of how humanity ended the climate crisis and restored the damage done to Earth's biosphere. A rousing vision of how we might unite to overcome the greatest challenge of our time.

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31 Comments on Kim Stanley Robinson: Remembering climate change … a message from the year 2071 | TED

  1. I will be back here in 2071, all of 79.. because a beautiful earth and kind humanity is my dream and I am not going to leave without living in one

  2. Does the United States have any concerted effort with any other countries, to hold the fossil fuel industries to clean up and have a neutral, separate entity to verify? And since global warming, is such a political football, shouldn’t the focus be more about poisoning the air, earth and water?

    • @Mark Pruitt Absolutly not the case. The biggest current emitters are China, USA, India and the EU. But USA and EU both emitted green house gases in large scales for far longer, as they were the first to industrialize.
      Thats why the USA and EU agreed to lead the fight against climate change. The US is far behind the EU in that goal. Nowadays the EU has lower per capita emissions the China.
      Oh and the EU is planning tariffs for green house gas emissions for imported products.

    • Yes that would the Paris Agreement. It is not exactly holding the fossil fuel industry responsible, but it includes a framework to evalute each countries contribution.
      Oh and every single country in the world has signed that. So global warming itself is agreed on to be a problem by everybody. It is just that the US is behaving like a toddler.

    • @MrMakabar And the Paris agreement is a completely non-binding agreement. Plenty of countries signed it with no intention of ever cutting emissions, and some, like China and Indian, are actually allowed to increase their emissions under the agreement. So why does it matter what a country has done in the past? I thought this was supposed to be about changing the world in the future, for the future. When you allow some countries to increase their emissions, while insisting that others cut, you’re accomplishing nothing.

    • Meat and fish contribute a lot to climate change. There is overfishing everywhere and raising animals is super land water and energy in efficient compared to plants

    • I think creating yet another competitive currency based on carbon capture will cause another market used to devalue most while enriching a few.

  3. Talking about 2071 isn’t solving it because many people just don’t care about 2071.
    Because they don’t plan to be alive then. 50 years into the future.
    We have to think about the climate implications of the next decade then people start to care.

    • The opinions of people who do not even care about their own children, are not even worthy of consideration.
      These are actual killers we’re talking about here. And not just normal killers, but killers of their own children too.

  4. There’s this persistent idea that there is some level of catastrophe that will eventually knock some sense into everyone. In reality, the more cataclysmic things get, the crazier humans will become.

    • Humans are terrible at detecting gradual change. Even though these changes are happening incredibly fast on a geologic time scale, individual humans are not noticing the change happening locally year to year. It’s unfortunately going to have to get *really* bad before everyone realises what’s going on.

    • Too crazy already. Watching “protesters” at (Canadian) political rallies makes me despair. When I see people encouraging their children to scream obscenities and wave their middle fingers, I despair.

  5. I understand for some people the idea of man made climate change is unthinkable because it means they will have to modify their way of life and hold corporations accountable. To be told you are part of the problem is hard to hear and it’s easy to turn away, to not listen and to give up. I can empathize with that. But denying a problem because you are scared and unwilling to change isn’t fair to the little ones on this earth. And it’s not fair to yourself either since the problem can be fixed.

    It’s like having an open wound on your body that has gotten so bad that you refuse to get it looked at because you know the process will be arduous and painful.

    Not going to lie. Fixing these issues won’t be easy. It won’t be fun. But we owe it to ourselves, the little ones and the planet to do so. But we aren’t doing this alone. There are 8 billion of us here.

    I know some people will never be swayed and will probably die unwilling to shift their position on this. But for man made climate change deniers or climate change deniers in general, know this: no one is attacking you or trying to hurt you. We simply want what’s best for the planet AND all of us on it. And that includes you. I wish you could see that we aren’t your enemy. We aren’t here to ruin your way of life or to scare or hurt you.

    But things have to change because this isn’t working anymore. The science is there. The data is there. And you absolutely have a choice to believe it or not to. But know that we are on your side because you are human and humanity cannot thrive or survive if we continue down this path.

  6. smart man, incredible books, i recommend his mars trilogy if your scientifically minded and interested in terraforming and the associated social dynamics

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