{"id":81907,"date":"2022-04-18T12:00:19","date_gmt":"2022-04-18T16:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=81907"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:37:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:37:10","slug":"optimism-experts-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/optimism-experts-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change will transform how we live, but these tech and policy experts see reason for optimism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Climate change will transform how we live, but these tech and policy experts see reason for optimism\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

This article is republished<\/a> from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. All photos provided by The Conversation<\/a> from various sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s easy to feel pessimistic when scientists around the world are warning that climate change has advanced so far, it\u2019s now inevitable that societies will either transform themselves or be transformed<\/a>. But as two of the<\/a> authors<\/a> of a recent international climate report<\/a>, we also see reason for optimism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change discuss changes ahead, but they also describe how existing solutions can reduce greenhouse gas emissions<\/a> and help people adjust<\/a> to impacts of climate change that can\u2019t be avoided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is that these solutions aren\u2019t being deployed fast enough. In addition to push-back from industries<\/a>, people\u2019s fear of change<\/a> has helped maintain the status quo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To slow climate change and adapt to the damage already underway, the world will have to shift how it generates and uses energy, transports people and goods, designs buildings and grows food. That starts with embracing innovation and change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fear of change can lead to worsening change<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

From the industrial revolution to the rise of social media, societies have undergone fundamental changes in how people live and understand their place in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some transformations are widely regarded as bad, including many of those connected to climate change. For example, about half the world\u2019s coral reef ecosystems have died<\/a> because of increasing heat and acidity in the oceans<\/a>. Island nations like Kiribati and coastal communities, including in Louisiana and Alaska, are losing land into rising seas<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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