If you could stop global warming, would you do it?
I hear they have these machines that can suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. It's really expensive, but hypothetically speaking I'm not sure it's a good idea anyway. Think of it like this. The human body is a multivariate system, with different parts sending out signals to other parts. This is the reason pharmaceutical drugs never really cure anything. You just block some of the signals, cover up symptoms. The problem usually gets worse because your body is confused and tries to compensate. Dosages have to be increased.
What if the environment works the same way? Carbon dioxide is a signal representing the amount of industry, or economic activity in society, a measure of life and activity. The more we have, the more the Earth has to balance it with natural forces. More trees. It just so happens that trees grow bigger and faster when there is more carbon dioxide, more water vapor, warmer temperatures. It's a self correcting system, as all long lived systems evolve to be.
So what might happen if we take away that feedback. Industry gets to keep growing unabated, and we just won't have the commensurate warming, the commensurate feedback to signal the need for more plant growth. A lot of global warming solutions seem to produce this result. For example, many scientists and geoengineers have reccomended spraying aluminum in the atmosphere to block and reflect the sun, dimming the Earth (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_dimming). This is very bad for plant growth.
A lack of vegetation in the capacity to support our population seems like a much bigger threat than warmer temperatures. We can adapt to warmer temperatures but not to a lack of oxygen producing trees. The Earth probably has some sort of built in population capacity. Certainly we haven't reached it yet, however by trying to game the numbers with artificial technologies, we might be inadvertently lowering that capacity rather than raising it. Humans have a bad track record with this sort of thing. Look at agriculture and soil depletion.
I say let it be. Besides, I'm not the guilty party. I don't want to pay, for the privlidge to stunt tree growth. I want the Queen of England to telecommute. Make her eat GMO tofu burgers. Global warming is the ultimate class warfare, and we're losing.