Opinion | We don’t have time to chase climate game-changers

The article about tech firms and investors pouring billions of dollars into fusion power (“Chasing the dream: The race for a game-changing technology is on,” Business, July 1) raised a wholly different question in my mind: Why aren’t we investing more in technologies that are already available that would enable us to avoid the catastrophic costs and devastating sorrow that climate change will cause?

Fusion power, as the wags point out, is always 10 years away. We can’t wait that long to turn this ship around. Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford, has found that we could meet virtually all of our energy needs with existing renewable technologies and storage. He even wrote a book about it: “No Miracles Needed.”

We don’t need costly, high-tech solutions such as fusion, if indeed it is even possible, or nuclear, which still has a waste-disposal problem.

Maybe the miracle we need is for all of us, but particularly those who hold power, to just fully commit to do everything possible with the options, choices, and tools we have now to combat climate change. A moonshot-level effort is needed from everyone on earth. I suppose I should say that fusion, new nuclear technologies, and carbon capture all hold promise in the long term. But I can’t. I am a teacher, and when I look at my high school students, I see their future unfolding. They need a miracle now.

Mary Jane Else

South Hadley