I'm in my early thirties and I feel like i've heard about an "artificial leaf" every five years for the last fifteen.

We have leaves. Can scientists invent something to help us convince politicians to actually give a shit about saving the planet we depend on.

Decarbonizing is the biggest political project in the world. Enormous resources are applied to it.

Many politicians are more interested in protecting the coal, oil, and gas industries. Renewable energy and methods of extracting carbon from the atmosphere are the last things they want.

Early seventies here, can extend and confirm your observation. Also flying cars, artificial intelligence, fusion power, equitable wealth distribution, ...

>I'm in my early thirties and I feel like i've heard about an "artificial leaf" every five years for the last fifteen.

You have a good memory. Most people don't, so the ruse of living in a world with amazing breakthroughs works really well with most people.

The pragmatic answer is that it is probably a better spend of time to innovate tech that circumvents politics than to spend time winning politics.

I think the reality is there is no saving anything. Only surviving as long as we can. Why dump billions into an impossible goal of saving when we could invest in survival? I hope I’m wrong but anyone that knows anything about investments knows that there’s a point where you need to cut your losses