Mentor Debates

I work for a company developing carbon capture technology. We believe we can reverse climate change through engineering—massive machines that pull CO2 from the atmosphere. If we scale successfully, we might save civilization. My neighbor is a permaculture farmer. He thinks we're insane. "You can't engineer your way out of a crisis caused by engineering," he says. "The answer isn't more technology—it's less consumption, smaller lives, returning to the land." He's not wrong that our lifestyle is unsustainable. But I've done the math. Eight billion people can't all become permaculture farmers. We can't degrow our way to survival. We need technological solutions. He's done the math too. Carbon capture at scale requires enormous energy, creates its own waste streams, and lets people avoid the harder changes. "It's a fantasy that lets us keep destroying the planet while feeling virtuous." I believe in human ingenuity. He believes in human limits. We both want to save the world but we can't both be right about how. Is the future going to be solved by more innovation or less consumption? — The Green Technologist in Boulder