To reverse climate change we must quickly and safely reduce global temperatures. This is a task with no precedent, for which there are only theoretical solutions, and with a solution space that is cluttered with diverse and often competing alternatives. There remain outstanding research questions relevant to this challenge in almost every discipline, and some of those questions are extremely deep -- they will not be easily answered.

There are problems which require a lot of brainpower and this is one of them -- but is it getting enough? Evidently it isn't. The field of potential solutions to the crisis is not winnowing quickly enough, and the confidence among experts in our ability to achieve emissions reduction goals is too low.

Given this picture we can formulate a key question for reversing climate change: How can we free up enough compute resources (human and in silico) to focus on and drive climate change reversal?

In recent decades, innovation in telecommunications has resulted in powerful tools for harnessing human attention. This technology should be applied and enhanced to direct the global compute power towards climate change reversal. As climate engineers do the work of lowering global temperatures, engineers of our information infrastructure, media, civic organizations, educational systems, etc., should automate, design, and reorganize our world into a machine for solving climate change problems.

Another way to state this question regarding computation and climate change, from a design perspective, is "What would a green internet look like?" It's something to think about...