12/29/2024
If I had to name the two defining issues of the 21st century,
I would choose—without hesitation—climate change and sustainable development.
In the 20th century, the great battlefield was ideology;
in the 21st, our fate will hinge on how effectively we confront climate change
and how well we build sustainable cities and communities.
Let us think coldly for a moment.
Even if climate change drives countless species to extinction,
the Earth itself will not die.
It will be the innocent life forms that perish—
and only those humans, plants, and animals that can adapt to the new system will endure.
From this perspective, the importance of sustainable cities and communities
cannot be overstated.
The amount of energy we consume is not the real issue.
The problem lies in how we produce it.
If fossil fuels supply that energy,
greenhouse gases will destabilize the planet’s energy balance,
triggering global warming.
Consider this: the amount of solar radiation reaching Earth in a single hour
matches all the energy humanity uses in a year.
This should shift our focus—
from how much energy we use
to what kind we use,
and how we can restore the Earth’s energy balance
so that heat can flow back into space as efficiently as it arrives.
In 2007, the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report went so far as to call nuclear power
“an effective low-carbon energy source.”
Given the urgency of the climate crisis, this was no casual remark.
And considering the Fukushima disaster in 2011,
we now tend to see nuclear power as a necessary evil—
a reflection of how grave the situation has become.
If mitigating climate change proves too difficult,
then adapting to it becomes essential.
After all, someone must survive.
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