Global warming: Are we doomed? A poll.

[Spongebob]

I don't see human behavior changing nearly fast enough to affect the current climate crisis.  

It's not about changing people's habits, but politicians doing something. For instance, Nye is talking about new nuclear energy (fusion) and how it could solve all the pollution problems and then some.

So maybe world leaders could organize something like a global Manhattan-like project in which top scientists would hurriedly work on developing new nuclear generators. Nye is talking about fusion, but maybe they could first work on simpler forms of nuclear energy like thorium reactors.

As if there should be some new Ministry, like Ministry for the Future.

Yeah, that's what I was implying, human behavior on the whole as it relates to our usage of energy.  We as individuals have the power to choose some forms of energy that are less carbon-intensive than others, such as installing solar panels or driving an electric car.  We also have full control of who we vote for and what political agendas our government espouses.  But as everyone here knows, a large portion of American voters perceive climate change as nothing but a hoax, so nothing will change as long as that is true.

There are several teams working on nuclear fusion generators around the world and they are making progress, but it is elusive and the technical challenges are not trivial.  There have been cleaner, more efficient fission reactor designs for decades now and the only thing slowing down the building of these new reactors is political will.  I see more news articles of people complaining about the shutting of old coal plants than I do of new nuclear plants.  The US hasn't built a new fission plant in 30 years, but there are two new ones under construction in Georgia.  This just isn't fast enough.  Every state should have at least one new fission facility under construction.