On almost every environmental issue I care about, in fact, I’ve been wrong at one point or another. I used to think that climate change was no big deal, that most environmental problems were massive exaggerations, that oil reserves were effectively unlimited, and more. Ramez Naam Read Quote
There are really two kinds of optimism. There’s the complacent, Pollyanna optimism that says, ‘Don’t worry – everything will be just fine,’ and that allows one to just lay back and do nothing about the problems around you. Then there’s what we call dynamic optimism. That’s an optimism based on action. Ramez Naam Read Quote
People are wired for lots of things. We’re wired for novelty. We’re wired for humor. We’re wired for new pieces of information that surprise us in some way or add value to our lives. We’re wired for fear. Ramez Naam Read Quote
Many of the most science-fictional tools to fight climate change are untested, are almost impossible to truly test at planetary scale – we only have one planet after all. We’re better off cutting our emissions so we don’t need them. Ramez Naam Read Quote
We’ve seen over time that countries that have the best economic growth are those that have good governance, and good governance comes from freedom of communication. It comes from ending corruption. It comes from a populace that can go online and say, ‘This politician is corrupt, this administrator, or this public official is corrupt.’ Ramez Naam Read Quote
