What’s the difference between blind optimism and conditional optimism? Blind optimism is a child expecting his parents to build him a treehouse; conditional optimism is a child confident he can build a treehouse if given the tools. This can be applied to the topic of climate change: we can blindly hope that we can reduce the effects of steadily warming atmosphere, or we can use the tools we have to make sure the effects of climate change are held to a minimum. Have a look here to see the case for “conditional optimism” on climate change.