This symposium addresses four coherent societal strategies that respond to the climate crisis and a few key issues in each strategy. First, the use of fossil fuels cannot be ceased immediately; emissions associated with burning them must be reduced. The session will address barriers to making carbon capture and storage a timely part of a carbon management portfolio and prospects for natural gas in fuel substitution. Second, the transition to a near zero–emission energy system requires many incremental choices and investments. The session will discuss how to discern between beneficial choices and those that seem like good ideas, but in reality will not lead to a near zero–emission energy system. The panel will discuss the effectiveness of various policies in causing such a transition in technology to take place. Third, investments must be made now in new technology to create new, game-changing energy options. Today's technologies are almost certainly not enough in the long term (e.g., the potential and possible timing of fusion and fusion/fission energy). Fourth, society must manage and adapt to unavoidable climate change. Climate change could occur so rapidly and devastatingly that humans will consider large-scale Earth-engineering efforts designed to directly counter the progress of warming. The session will address codes of ethics to govern research of these concepts.