Problems, Predicaments, and Technology

  Artwork by Ken Avidor

  Artwork from Ken Avidor

  Playhouse (for the landowners' grandchildren) in Jonesboro, Illinois Four of my articles over the past couple of years are part of a four-part series titled, " So, What Should We Do? " The first three articles were written, one after the other, back in 2021 after I discovered our lack of free will which condemns us to make choices based upon our biological (see the Maximum Power Principle ) and cultural conditioning (see this article ). This led me to realize that we truly lack agency to be able to control hyperobjects such as nature, climate change, ecological overshoot , the biosphere, etc. Not only is the predicament of overshoot too difficult for most people to grasp, many people unfortunately place it in the category of problems (with answers or solutions) rather than predicaments (with outcomes). Attempting to reduce issues seen as problems tends to turn those issues into bigger problems and/or predicaments. Often this is due to those working on these issues ...

  Lake Murphysboro State Park, Illinois

  The Ludington Pumped Storage Power Plant

  Resilience/Sustainability 'Snow guns' spewing man-made Beijing Olympics snow raise concerns Bamboo fibres offer strong, 'green' manufacturing alternative Implementing sustainable nitrogen use in smallholder rice Indigenous communities hold a huge and unique source of ecological knowledg e Reduced meat diet has many advantages Nations are overusing natural resources faster than they are meeting basic human needs Resilience of vertebrate animals in rapid decline due to manmade threats Renaturing insects in urban backyards 'Trade-offs' between wellbeing and resilience Report: Southeast Asia needs to boost disaster resilience Parasitic wasps turn other insects into 'zombies,' saving millions of humans along the way Peatlands protect against wildfire and flooding, but they're still under attack in Canada Seagrass restoration study shows rapid recovery of ecosystem functions Valorizing into urban biowaste locally: Conclusive results of the European DECIS...

  Inspiration Point is at the top of this cliff in southern Illinois

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore , Michigan

  The chairlift at Natural Tunnel State Park, Virginia

  Eagle Rock Train Station, Eagle Rock, Virginia

  Picnic Area at Lake Powhatan, North Carolina

  Lexie enjoying the view from Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondacks of New York

  Top picture: Civilization; Pikeville, Kentucky Bottom picture: Nature; Birch Knob, Virginia 

  Sleeping Bear Dunes, Michigan

  Pictures of wildfire damage at Glacier National Park in Montana 2016 Special note:   In reality, this series could have been titled,  " So, what can be done? "  to eliminate  the "we" issue  and the judgment issue ("should"). 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, REGARDLE...