Problems, Predicaments, and Technology

  Overlook on  Whiteface Veterans Memorial Highway

The beach at Glimmerglass State Park in New York

Round Barn in Indiana

  Seven Pillars Nature Preserve

Lake Michigan as seen from Consumers Energy Scenic Overlook, Ludington, Michigan

The lone boat on Lake Michigan at Sleeping Bear Dunes

  Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Clover Hollow Covered Bridge, Virginia

  Beartree Lake at Beartree Recreation Area

Cliff View Park, Alto Pass, Illinois

  Artwork from Ken Avidor

  Artwork by Ken Avidor

  Philpott Lake, Virginia, as seen from the Visitor Center of Philpott Dam

  Lover's Leap Overlook, Virginia

  A turkey vulture flying over Yatesville Lake in Kentucky

  The chairlift at Natural Tunnel State Park, Virginia

  Viking Mountain Overlook, Tennessee

  Lake Powhatan Swimming Beach, North Carolina

  Trail at Bell Smith Springs in Southern Illinois

Happy Winter/Summer Solstice!! As anyone reading my articles often already knows, ecological overshoot is the master predicament causing many different symptom predicaments . I constantly see many people blaming emissions or greed or capitalism or governments or oil companies or fossil fuels (and on and on...) for causing climate change (or their favorite symptom predicament). Playing the blame game gets us nowhere though , and unfortunately, it is also far more complicated than that. Reducing emissions is a great idea (NOT a solution as noted below in the new paper from James Hansen), but it cannot be accomplished without reducing ecological overshoot because ecological overshoot is precisely what is CAUSING emissions. Ecological overshoot is caused by technology use , which means that it is being caused by our behavior . In order to reduce emissions, there is no other choice than to reduce technology use. This requires changing our behaviors. Most emissions historically have be...