If there’s a flood in Chennai, they’ll call it Climate Change and whine that they’re not able to produce solar energy. If there’s a drought in Vancouver, they’ll call it Climate Change, and whine that they’re not able to produce hydro power. They will not think of producing hydro power in Chennai or solar energy in Vancouver. Basically, they will just whine.
I get it, climate change is supposed to be any deviations from the normal climate but what I don’t get is the mitigation measures advocated by Climate Change Maxis. Not only are they totally impractical but, as it recently struck me, they’re also terribly defensive.
“Reduce energy consumption”, “destroy datacenters”, and “stop AI” are juvenile and will only resonate with doomers aka decels (short for decelerators). More in When Ze Oceans Rise, Climate Change Hoax Will Fall.
Accels (short for accelerators) will think differently and find ways to exploit climate change instead of meekly submitting to it.
- If climate change causes drought somewhere, they will build solar power plants there to exploit the additional sunshine and generate cheap power.
- If climate change causes flood somewhere else, they will build hydro power plants there to explioit the additional water and generate cheap power.
Either way, they will do something to exploit climate aberrations to the advantage of society. As progressive human beings have always done.
Back in the day, when the intrepid explorer left his village in search of greener pastures, he came across many obstacles such as rivers. Had he meekly submitted to the obstacle and turned back, humankind would have been stuck in the stone age. Thankfully, he and his fellow accels built a bridge to cross the river (or a canoe to row across it), thus progressing to the modern era. It’s a shame that modern day decels are behaving exactly opposite by telling everyone to shut down datacenters.
Now, you might wonder whether accels can build solar and hydro power plants quickly enough to exploit the temporary changes in climate.
They can. Like nuclear power plants have gone small modular – even mobile – accels will find ways to make solar and hydro power plants go small modular and build them in advance.
You might still wonder if they can get those plants to the affected areas fast enough.
They can. A new startup called Inversion Space has found a way to deliver cargo from outer space to anywhere on Earth within an hour.
Here’s Axios PRO’s coverage of the startup:
There are times like natural disasters in which you need the thing at the location immediately. You can plan for that thing and keep it ready years in advance, but you can’t prepare in advance for the time and place when and where it will be needed. Enter Inversion. The new space delivery startup is developing small spacecraft that can store cargo in space for up to five years. The vehicles have targeted reentry capabilities, thus letting them “glide” the cargo to a specific ground destination.
While this sounds like a sci-fi idea, it has become feasible after space startups like SpaceX have dramatically slashed the cost of space launches. Armed with that insight, accels will work towards getting Inversion and other space delivery startups to deliver small modular solar and hydro power plants to affected places in a matter of hours. That way, the power plants will reach the required spots well in time to be able to exploit the drought or flood.
If that still sounds futuristic for decels, here’s something from the present that decels must answer for: COP29 declares financial engineering in the form of Carbon Credits to be the most pragmatic solution for mitigating Climate Change.
This has been obvious to many people who have been waiting in vain on core engineering to deliver a superduper climate tech solution for 10+ years. I’ve myself been exploring solar panels in my apartment since times immemorial. I’ve reached out to several solar firms but not one of them has a practical solution for me to replace my fossil fuel energy with solar power.
While sinecure bureaucrats are not known for speed and accountability, not sure why decels shilled COP29’s previous guidance for so long.
End of the day, climate change is the hand we’re dealt. We can play it like decels and get rekt. Or we can play it like accels and progress. The choice is ours.
