Anna, great article, thanks for this, even if the title doesn't indicate the real nature of it - your article is about survival, and makes some great observations on how to do that, when the title looks a little like its just another doomer story, it seems to me, that might be canny strategy on your part :)
Agree completely mental escape is necessary, for sanity if nothing else, as is experimenting with new ideas, and fully empowering all existing and potential brilliant minds, so as to investigate all possibilities of all possible solutions (I still say there is only one, because there is only one sustainable energy source, but I am only one human, maybe others will find more!).
Your observations on the example problem of homelessness not being addressed by building yet more houses is one seen often, Venezuela tried to address this by declaring all vacant houses up for grabs by whoever occupies them, but it didn't work, because they failed to fix the energy problem at source, and they lost probably all foreign investment funds. They obviously depend more than ever on the now on the ill fated oil for their energy. So just changing from capitalism to another political or economic ideology is not the answer.
On experimentation, I would suggest to do it virtually, before trying it for real. Virtual mistakes are much cheaper to put right than physical ones, and they are never fatal.
If we can't model it, we deinitely never can built it, is my own philosophy, but I am biased, as a long practicing model based systems engineer.
Totally agree all business for profit neeeds to collapse, it is 100% systemically dependent on extracted energy. Profit is energy theft from the planet. We saw how to get rid of it during covid, but it got quickly swept under the carpet by the establishment for profit. It happened when massive stimulus was issued, oil prices went negative, whilst most for profit companies were going bankrupt, the ones we wanted were rescued by ordinary folk trading in markets for the first time ever, throwing free money at them, whilst traditional investors fled, led by Buffet who claimed something had gone wrong with money.
Nothing had gone wrong with money, its value in terms of energy, in markets showed a spike of receovery, the opposite of inflation, as did the environment, the only time in history, it was a period of miracles we didn't know how to read.
Hence why money has to permanently move to solar indexed stimulus.
As soon as that happens, we will be on the road to recovery in a very short timeframe, much less than we might expect, after all communities are equipped, maybe 30 or 40 years, to pay back what took thousands of years to grow to the deficit it is now, our energy deficit with the planet.
Doing that will also wind back down the temperature.
I think it can only be done with Ai, specifically ChatGPT 3.5, since it is already itself solar powered, as the controller.
The one physical experiment I'd stress should be stopped, never tried again, is GeoEngineering, honestly, it is the most potentially disastrous thing we could be meddling with, it is orbital dynamics no less, and the effects are cumulative, irreversible, on a system that has been in equilibrium for billions of years. We can easily prove this virtually, yet that is being ignored by those looking to make some profit by at least appearing to do it.
By the time we could measure any effects, it would be too late, the stone of Earth would already be exiting the sling of the orbit around the sun.
If we ever wanted a physical explanation of why there are such things as wandering dark planets (And maybe why a certain genetic strain of us has skin intolerant to sunlight), there it is right there. Global warming and nuclear wars pale in comparison with the inevitable outcome of GeoEngineering.
Ignoring the sun, or gaslighting the value of it is a forgivable insult, resulting in the problems we see already, but putting a shield up against it, the original source of energy of all life, is a pretty literal slap in the face it will never forgive.
