Comment by s_kilk

> Why can't we put that money, effort, manpower, and will into actually addressing climate change and make crazy projects like vast man-made Mines-of-Moria-style underground tunnels and huge artificial reservoirs unnecessary?

In part because the Carbon Industry is huge and powerful, and holds power over most of the worlds major governments.

I mean Rex Tillerson, the former head of Exxon Mobil is currently the US Secretary of State.

The rest is because the machine of Late Capitalism is built on a presumption of endless growth with no consequences. The crisis that's barrelling down on us is so __alien__ to the established way of thinking that it's literally impossible for these economies to react with anything other than stupor and paralysis.