For those of us fortunate enough to be born into the right circumstances, life is good, with antibiotics, modern dentistry, vaccines, climate-controlled homes, big-screen TV’s, smart phones.<\/p>\n
The sum of this, however, is worrying to some<\/a>:\u00a0What is the toll to the planet, to the ecosystems that support us and the rich diversity of animals and plants? Are we, collectively, altering the earth<\/a> in such ways that threaten our future existence? This is the concern that a number of scientists<\/a> have expressed<\/a>\u00a0in recent years. Others<\/a> have pushed back<\/a> on such a gloomy prognosis.<\/p>\n
http://www.amandasatoz.com/?page_id=1454 There is a familiar ring to this debate. (Indeed, there is a new book<\/a> that captures the ferociousness of it.) For decades, grim warnings of imminent “collapse” and “tipping points” have animated environmental discourse. Here is what Barry Commoner, one of the giants of modern environmentalism, wrote in his classic 1971 book<\/a>, The Closing Circle: Nature, Man & Technology<\/em>:<\/p>\n
https://disneycruisinggroup.com/cruise-cancellation/ If we are to survive, we must understand why\u00a0<\/em>this collapse now threatens. Here, the issues become far more complex than even the ecosphere. Our assaults on the ecosystem are so powerful, so numerous, so finely interconnected, that although the damage they do is clear, it is very difficult to discover how it was done. By which weapon? In whose hand? Are we driving the ecosphere to destruction simply by our growing numbers? By our greedy accumulation of wealth? Or are the machines which we have built to gain this wealth–the magnificent technology that now feeds us out of neat packages, that clothes us in man-made fibers, that surrounds us with new chemical creations–at fault?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
These assumptions and questions are still driving the conversation today. At least this is the contention I have made<\/a>. Yes, there are new wrinkles, such as the climate change imperative and a new overarching framework<\/a>, but the underlying themes articulated by Commoner over 40 years ago remain much the same.<\/p>\n
https://ramedicare.com/frequently-asked-questions/ One of these themes–our fraught relationship with technology–was taken up in a recent symposium<\/a> called, “The Longevity of Human Civilization: Will We Survive Our World-Changing Technologies?”<\/p>\n
https://www.andrewplimmer.com/andrew-plimmer/ My first thought:\u00a0Well, we’ve made it this far, haven’t we?\u00a0<\/em>And jeez, look at where we started.<\/p>\n