Pictures of wildfire damage at Glacier National Park in Montana 2016 What type of activities will help in reducing the effects of ecological overshoot? I'm often asked this question when I point out that solar panels, wind turbines, nuclear energy, hydroelectric dams, EVs, and all other technological devices will not help climate change, pollution loading, or any other predicament under the parent predicament of ecological overshoot: "Well, what are your solutions?" Sadly, this question assumes that I am pointing out a PROBLEM, not a predicament. Predicaments don't have solutions. So, I don't have a solution (and nobody else does either, despite claims to the contrary - more on that in a couple of paragraphs). But I can tell them what WON'T help. Buying more stuff, REGARDLESS of what it is, WILL NOT HELP. Because ecological overshoot is a predicament with an outcome and not a problem with a solution , people need to adjust their expectations accordingly.
Eric,
ReplyDeleteThe most important "spiritual resource" one can find, or one can have is someone/someones that we are close to and see often that understands what is going on at the critical Earth-Systems Level.
I don't mean people who get it like you and like many of us, I have been at this for 30+ years for example, but people who do know that we are in for a great deal of suffering, no matter what we do, and that the suffering cannot be avoided, but has to be dealt with sooner or later.
One example is the number of humans. Now in 2021, we have ~8 billion humans. Almost half, and at leas one-third are totally dependant on methane to survive, because methane is the what we use to produce food fertilizer. So called renewables cannot produce the heat/pressure needed to pull apart the N2, nitrogen that is 4/5 of the atmosphere and all proteins have nitrogen, that is an inert gas.
So, methane is necessary for at least 1/3 of us to eat enough and not starve, yet methane continuing in present use means the planet is unlivable. Therefore, enough to eat for everyone is a Catch-22, a dilemma, a predicament. Ther e is no viable solution.
And not having enough to eat for everyone means suffering. Suffering for all.
Someone to talk with, someone who knows we cannot build or invent our way out of the intractable problems beyond repair is crucial, and I am not sure that clinical therapists fit the bill.
Even blogs don't satisfy.
Eric,
ReplyDeleteThe most important "spiritual resource" one can find, or one can have is someone/someones that we are close to and see often that understands what is going on at the critical Earth-Systems Level.
I don't mean people who get it like you and like many of us, I have been at this for 30+ years for example, but people who do know that we are in for a great deal of suffering, no matter what we do, and that the suffering cannot be avoided, but has to be dealt with sooner or later.
One example is the number of humans. Now in 2021, we have ~8 billion humans. Almost half, and at leas one-third are totally dependant on methane to survive, because methane is the what we use to produce food fertilizer. So called renewables cannot produce the heat/pressure needed to pull apart the N2, nitrogen that is 4/5 of the atmosphere and all proteins have nitrogen, that is an inert gas.
So, methane is necessary for at least 1/3 of us to eat enough and not starve, yet methane continuing in present use means the planet is unlivable. Therefore, enough to eat for everyone is a Catch-22, a dilemma, a predicament. Ther e is no viable solution.
And not having enough to eat for everyone means suffering. Suffering for all.
Someone to talk with, someone who knows we cannot build or invent our way out of the intractable problems beyond repair is crucial, and I am not sure that clinical therapists fit the bill.
Even blogs don't satisfy.