Problems, Predicaments, and Technology
We often see people bring out certain ideas that they claim are some sort of “solution” or that “they work” and I want to try to explain why (once again) these ideas are nothing more than ideas and not “solutions” of any sort. One of the things I most would like to get others to see is the bigger picture. Many people focus on reductionist ideas such as non-renewable “renewable” energy, or alternative energy ideas such as hydrogen, or technological ideas; but fail to see how those ideas don’t really change anything and only allow for continued environmental destruction (and consolidate capital in the hands of the elite) instead.
Before I go any further, I should make it clear that climate change (and most of the topics in our files) is a predicament. A predicament has an outcome, not a solution or answer. Solutions and answers are reserved for PROBLEMS. Many people get these two mixed up and tend to see predicaments as problems. Wikipedia calls a predicament a “wicked problem” but this doesn’t change the simple fact that predicaments or dilemmas do not have solutions.
One of the first things I constantly harp about is technology. Technology has been great for those of us who can afford to use it, but it came at a huge cost to the environment AND to us over the long haul. It is our use of technology which CONTINUES the exponential expansion of the predicaments we face and it is our insistence upon not only using existing technology but on developing NEW technology to “solve” the predicaments technology caused to begin with that is itself one of the biggest parts of our predicaments.
Technology REQUIRES three things: mining (extraction), energy use (fossil fuel burning in most cases), and industrial civilization (the entire system we are embedded within and live within). Because these three things (along with technology use itself) are unsustainable and are killing all life on this planet, it is technology use which itself is unsustainable. This makes ANYTHING requiring technology under today’s conditions only capable of further destruction of our biosphere. Technology includes the wheel, fire, and agriculture, and modern agriculture combines all three of these. Agriculture is precisely what has caused global population numbers to skyrocket, and it is the overpopulation combined with consumption which have caused ecological overshoot. Ecological overshoot is the parent predicament causing climate change and most other predicaments we face. Some people have brought up regenerative agriculture as one of these so-called “solutions” that they believe will help. Regenerative agriculture can indeed work to do things like sequestering small amounts of carbon in soil, but what these folks have forgotten is that it does nothing to stop industrial civilization upon which agriculture is the bedrock of to begin with. As long as industrial civilization continues, so too does the continuing worsening of the biosphere upon which we depend. This makes agriculture of ALL types guilty of allowing the continuation of the very system destroying us. In addition, as the climate changes and extreme weather events worsen, ALL agriculture will suffer as a result. What would it take for humanity to experience radical transformation? Visit this link to find out more!
This is where the fault of logic is — it is similar to the smoker who decides to treat his addiction to nicotine with more nicotine in a different form (such as a “patch” or “lozenge” or e-cigarette or chewing tobacco). The same thing can be said of utilizing different energy sources to “replace” fossil fuels. We are simply treating our addiction to energy with more energy in a never-ending vicious cycle. As long as we don’t recognize our addiction, we wind up continuing the hamster wheel in a slightly different form while continuing to cause yet more damage.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t to throw the baby out with the bathwater and claim that none of these ideas have any redeeming qualities, as many of them do. Provided the right conditions are met with regenerative ag, for instance, it CAN sequester carbon in the soil. In the nicotine example, reducing nicotine intake by utilizing other sources and then reducing the amount of nicotine gradually CAN help a smoker quit permanently. Ocean fertilization CAN help promote phytoplankton growth if several other conditions are met at the same time. But none of them stop industrial civilization, so the ongoing damage to the environment continues unabated.
Until society realizes that technology itself is part of the predicaments in and of itself will people come to realize that technology can never solve what it has caused — it can only make conditions worse:
Techno-fix futures will only accelerate climate chaos — don’t believe the hype
Why relying on new technology won’t save the planet
The Myth of The “Energy Transition”
The Fantasy of Electrification