I’ve been saying this for years: it’s happening, it’s silly to deny it, but it’s also a trade-off for an advancing civilization. The warming atmosphere is occurring because we’re living better and longer, and having instantaneous and near-instantaneous communication and transportation devices. How much would you give up for a more inconvenient and arguably less healthy life (e.g., mining and smelting activities help give us trains and cars and MRIs and medicines) that comes from carbon-intensive activities? I do think we’re advancing to where technology cleans excess carbon from the atmosphere and to where we have better fuels (I work in aerospace and space engineering, and there are advanced jet fuels being tested now, both for security and environmental reasons), but we’re not there just yet. Thanks for coming to my TED talk. .