Climate Change After the Durban Conference: The Dangers of Cultural Lock-In

摘要

Many students of technology are familiar with the term "technological lock-in," which refers to the process by which a technology is adopted-and becomes very difficult to modify or displace-not because of its inherent virtues but because it is so connected to other technological, economic, and social systems. Thus, for example, renewable energy systems are difficult to implement at scale in part because fossil fuel systems are so integrated with other major technologies, creating huge barriers to substitution.