Sunday, June 11, 2023

Ecologist William E. Rees on: overshoot, carbon dioxide, cities, and human thinking

 In this short clip, Prof. Rees is interviewed by another comprehensive thinker, Prof. Nate Hagens (The Great Simplification, also on YouTube).  This is an excerpt from a longer talk.  If you wish to increase your ecological knowledge, don't miss this---

It seems to me that too many of our public & private Powers-That-Be are stuck in reductionist (as opposed to holistic) thinking.  As a result, as a species we're not yet approaching the mitigation of the Eco-Crisis in any comprehensive manner.  Here are a few specifics---
1.  Why is there no U.S. Dept. of Sustainability, or same in any other country?
2.  Which of the Powers-That-Be is addressing the soil crisis, or the acidification of the ocean, or the massive pollution of the ecosphere by micro-plastics, or pollution by endocrine-disrupting chemicals, or biodiversity loss (there is a bit of progress with this one), or how all these and more are linked?
3.  Which of the Powers truly understands the need for economic  development which is sustainable, as opposed to mindless economic growth which perpetually produces more mountains of rubbish (thus overwhelming Earth's waste-neutralizing capacity)?
4.  How many of the Powers really grasp this concept:  if we don't address the human overpopulation problem, Nature will - via massive starvation, famine, disease, and untimely death?
5.  How many of the Powers understand that technological advances are one of the main reasons we are now in a socio-eco-econ-ethical Crisis of the Ages?  Why?  Because those Tech advances were almost blindly implemented, with little thought to possible unintended consequences, and even less thought to monitoring & regulating their implementation.  A prime example is the petrochemical industry.  It has brought us great convenience, and monumental damage to health and ecosystems.  It's folly to believe that Technology alone now will save us.
Holism v. Reductionism---
..........................
Not only my opinion.  Be Well

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