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Technological Solutions and Social-Technological Solutions

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The Fossil-Fuelled Climate Crisis

Abstract

Technological solutions are classified into two categories: mitigating global warming (i) while combusting fossil fuels, and (ii) leaving fossil fuels underground. In the first category, natural gas could replace coal and heavy oil as a bridge fuel in the transition to clean energy, but it is a fossil fuel that emits carbon. Carbon capture from large stationary emitters, from the air, by seaweed or new types of cement, and then storing the carbon underground, as well as geoengineered sunscreens in space, are assessed. Presently these hopes of the fossil-fuel industry don’t work or are too expensive and dangerous. In the second category, solar, wind, hydro, tidal, biofuel, geothermal, and nuclear need technical improvements to be scaled up. So does capturing carbon from the air and using it for fuel. Paying for these innovations and making them competitive against fossil fuels requires a social solution of including the full cost of fossil fuels in their price through proxies like carbon taxes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Raymond Murphy

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  1. Raymond Murphy
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Correspondence to Raymond Murphy .

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Murphy, R. (2021). Technological Solutions and Social-Technological Solutions. In: The Fossil-Fuelled Climate Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53325-0_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53325-0_10

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-53324-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-53325-0

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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