The issue of how technology can/will save us from the problems of climate change and environmental disaster has always been interesting to me. The reason for this is that my father (a smart man with normally semi-reasonable positions) has a hard-line technology will save us stance on the issue. So whenever the issue comes up, and it often comes up due to having a family friend who works on climate change issues for Nasa, he spends several minutes ranting about human ingenuity and how technology has always saved us before.

I don't take his hard-line view on the issue, however I think that we have passed the point where a non-technological answer can really solve the problem. Yes reducing consumption can help but I do not believe that we can realistically reduce consumption in a way that can seriously fix any of the issues we are currently facing.

Technology isn't always going to be something that can save us from ourselves, it simply can't be a good thing for us all the time. However when it comes to climate change it can't be anything but a good thing, because we have simply gotten to large for any other solution to be able to fix the problem except technology.