David talks to Helen Thompson and Adam Tooze about the choices facing the world in addressing climate change. Can we transition away from fossil fuels while maintaining our current ways of living? Will we act in time if we also insist on taking our time? Can the West uphold its values while getting its hands dirty with China? Plus we discuss whether American democracy is the worst system of all for doing what needs to be done.
Talking Points:
The transition away from fossil fuels to non-carbon energy sources is, for now, constrained by the laws of physics around energy use.
Or is this way of framing things too negative?
How do we actually get to carbon neutrality by 2050?
There are different timescales at play here.
There is no collective climate solution that doesn’t involve China.
Mentioned in this Episode:
Further Learning:
And as ever, recommended reading curated by our friends at the LRB can be found here: lrb.co.uk/talking
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