Hubris and Humility in the Face of Climate Overshoot

Abstract As the climate crisis accelerates, negative emissions technologies (NETs) are increasingly being explored as a supposed climate technofix. Synthetic biology, by which engineering principles are applied to biological systems, recently emerged as a potential NET, exemplifying how proposed responses to the crisis are overly determined by hubris, rather than humility. However, the gravity of the crisis requires a deeper problematization of the dichotomy between hubris and humility. Nevertheless, debates on mitigation strategies cannot ignore that the—highly dubious—likelihood of averting runaway climate change has become dependent on the efficacious implementation of NETs. As such, the pursuit of hubris, or the acquiescence to humility, will, in turn, constitute entirely different pathways for the long-term future of life on Earth.