My wife, my parents and most of my friends tell me when I try to bring up the climate topic.
"Either do something about it or let's talk about something else, it's depressing"...
And I often wonder - what is the root cause of this climate thing? We need to fix the root cause and then things will fall into place... Right ?
See, I don't think it's the fossil fuels. I don't think it's the pollution and the destruction of forests and the mining and the toxic rivers and the plastic in the oceans.
All these mechanistic manifestations of human activity are consequences of our dominant philosophy of life.
What's important to us, what matters more, about choices we make every day.
Forests or nice furniture ? Clean air or 6.3 liter V12 (yeah!) ? Clean rivers in China or iPhone 6s ?
Beef or Lentils ? Me or my competitors ?
Ultimately it's the answers that we have to some very simple questions - about who we are and why we are here...
These are spiritual questions.
So my conclusion was that: The state of the Planet is mirroring humanity's spiritual health.
So if this is the root cause, is there a way to cure it ? Well :)
Can you envision a way to make 7 billion people of various races and religions agree on one and true "spiritual" code ?
I find it very hard.
But maybe not spiritual - maybe we can use Science and invent new things... Well, isn't it "science" that got us here in the first place ?
Isn't it like "throwing good money after bad" ?
I don't know. As a scientist I sure hope we can figure something out.
There are a couple of ideas we could use... But there are other issues..
How can we renounce our way of life, our growth, our social order, the economy, the stock market....
Because that's what it would take to fix things.. "Going green" is too little too late.
We need to stop consuming, we need to stop growing, we need to stop competing.
And that's political and economic blasphemy right there.
Edit: Changed my mind. Although I think our chances of fixing this mess are slim, I still think there's hope.
There are things we can do about it. We are technologists. We have a lot more power than we care to admit.
Imagine Facebook "spamming" all users about climate change, about recycling, about respecting nature.
Imagine Google showing up "red spots" of pollution on the maps.
Instead of ads, why not climate propaganda from time to time ?
What if every iPhone's or Android's alarm went off at the same time warning users that the Planet is in danger ? Go plant a tree now!
Simple, cheap, yet could have dramatic effects..
Eventually it would cause political changes and hopefully we'll at least extend the problem further into the future.
The problem is Moloch. Tragedy of the Commons. No individual has an incentive to care. And even if they do, even if you do consume less, nothing stops someone else from burning up the resources you would have used.
The only solution is political. Not just a tax on using fossil fuels, but a tax on mining them out of the ground in the first place. If they aren't kept in the ground, they will keep pumping them out until its not ecomical to do so.
I agree, for everyone who stays in a more-material-stuff-is-better mentality.
By contrast, I've found reducing how much I pollute has improved my life. My experiment to buy no food for a week where I'd have to throw away packaging -- http://joshuaspodek.com/avoiding-food-packaging -- went incredibly well. After avoiding packaging for a 2.5 weeks, I don't completely avoid it not, but I've switched to almost only fresh fruits, vegetables, and dried legumes I get in bulk with bags I bring.
Similar experiments in other areas have improved my life in many ways I wouldn't have expected before.
People found ways to be happy before oil, many probably more happy than most are today.
>Well, isn't it "science" that got us here in the first place ?
No, not even a little bit. Science attempts to explain why things are the way they are and predict outcomes to given actions. It doesn't come close to telling us which actions we should take.
Science allows the development of technology and technology is responsible for most fossil fuel emissions and pollution.
I agree that theoretical science in itself is neutral - the same science can be used to build technology which is climate neutral or even useful in cleaning up the mess.
Besides, there is more than a subtle difference between the concept of "pure science" and what form science takes in reality - interweaved with politics, economics, personal egos, etc.
My wife, my parents and most of my friends tell me when I try to bring up the climate topic.
"Either do something about it or let's talk about something else, it's depressing"...
And I often wonder - what is the root cause of this climate thing? We need to fix the root cause and then things will fall into place... Right ?
See, I don't think it's the fossil fuels. I don't think it's the pollution and the destruction of forests and the mining and the toxic rivers and the plastic in the oceans.
All these mechanistic manifestations of human activity are consequences of our dominant philosophy of life.
What's important to us, what matters more, about choices we make every day.
Forests or nice furniture ? Clean air or 6.3 liter V12 (yeah!) ? Clean rivers in China or iPhone 6s ? Beef or Lentils ? Me or my competitors ?
Ultimately it's the answers that we have to some very simple questions - about who we are and why we are here... These are spiritual questions.
So my conclusion was that: The state of the Planet is mirroring humanity's spiritual health.
So if this is the root cause, is there a way to cure it ? Well :)
Can you envision a way to make 7 billion people of various races and religions agree on one and true "spiritual" code ? I find it very hard.
But maybe not spiritual - maybe we can use Science and invent new things... Well, isn't it "science" that got us here in the first place ? Isn't it like "throwing good money after bad" ? I don't know. As a scientist I sure hope we can figure something out. There are a couple of ideas we could use... But there are other issues..
How can we renounce our way of life, our growth, our social order, the economy, the stock market....
Because that's what it would take to fix things.. "Going green" is too little too late.
We need to stop consuming, we need to stop growing, we need to stop competing. And that's political and economic blasphemy right there.
Edit: Changed my mind. Although I think our chances of fixing this mess are slim, I still think there's hope.
There are things we can do about it. We are technologists. We have a lot more power than we care to admit.
Imagine Facebook "spamming" all users about climate change, about recycling, about respecting nature. Imagine Google showing up "red spots" of pollution on the maps. Instead of ads, why not climate propaganda from time to time ? What if every iPhone's or Android's alarm went off at the same time warning users that the Planet is in danger ? Go plant a tree now!
Simple, cheap, yet could have dramatic effects.. Eventually it would cause political changes and hopefully we'll at least extend the problem further into the future.
If only the Planet could pay us back somehow...