We all just love a story where the suspense builds and builds, the whole tale teeters on the brink of disaster — but then, just in time, the hero or heroine saves the day. And it’s no different with climate change. As we watch this slow-motion catastrophe unfurl, we hold out hope for that last-minute save, that silver bullet that could solve the whole problem.
The latest hope for a catchall climate fix comes from the secret labs of weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin, which announced last week that its scientists have made a breakthrough in fusion energy, smashing atoms together at high heat to produce tremendous energy in a little space. Tom McGuire of Lockheed Martin claims that in “20 years, we’ll have clean power for the world.”
Is this what we’ve all been waiting for?
Let’s set aside any well-founded skepticism about whether McGuire and Co. can actually bring us fusion in a couple decades, and take them at their word for a minute. Even once it’s out of the lab, there are still major challenges to making this technology live up to its promise as a climate fix:
First, to address climate change, we need to stop using fossil ... Read more
