Recent news is certainly discouraging for those of us who think that in order to find our way out of this mess, we need first to transition to non carbon-producing sources of energy. Emissions are rising again at a yearly rate of about 2%. It could be that nearly all of our efforts to escape the effects of climate change will end up being adaptation. We just can't stop what we do. It's like expecting beavers not to cut down trees to make lodges. Any ethic of gently treating the earth that may have existed in simpler societies has no chance of creating an attitudinal solution to the crisis. Complexity itself works against such an ethical transformation. Growth is king. I'm skeptical not so much of the feasibility of your ocean plans, but of the willingness of governments to divert the massive amounts of needed money for the effort. Some countries believe they'll be relative winners in climate change, which creates an ugly scenario of survival of the luckiest.

Adaptation isn't just building seawalls and relocating coastal cities. It involves the greater challenge of accommodating the world's climate refugees. Politically, the world is showing less and less heart to help people in need of homes.