Spot on. You and @Alpha Lo seem to be looking at the same solution path. And it's a good one. For myself, I am dispairing. I see the "anthro" in Anthropocene as the root problem. There are way too many of us and the burden of our numbers is changing the planet. Imagine fair Orkney with 200,000 people on it.
I think we need to be careful about making generalisations about 'we' as human beings. Not every human has the same impact as one living in the western industrialised world, and many indigenous lifeways have been finely tuned to flourish sustainably in their environments. 'Our' consumption habits are not universal. This is why many people find the "anthro" in anthropocene very problematic, as it erases many other ways of being human. "We", as a word, always carries assumptions worth unpacking.
You're very right, so often 'green infrastructure' is built at the expense of nature, and so many 'green activists' seem to overlook nature. Yet nature is vital.
There does seem to be a blind spot about letting natural processes do the work - of course there’s less profit to be made that way. It’s ironic that for all the politicans’ talk about ‘growth’ they’re never talking about nature when they do.
Yes, I read Rob’s piece here. We’re so certain that technology and more development is going to solve it, that the obvious - what it means for land, water and other species - rarely enters the conversation.
Good day Sam, Informative, thought provoking, tracings of hopeful solutions. Learning of Rob Lewis, Richard Heinberg, and best of all, Patrick Geddes from more than a century ago. And so grateful for your intelligence and diligence.
As counterpoint I’ll note that AI has crowned the winner of the first AI beauty pageant. Joking? I wish I were. Submittals by well versed AI creators, and judged by a panel of two humans, well acquainted with the AI world, and two judges created by AI. Monetary awards were modest. I viewed the occasion as one to boost awareness and adoption of AI while patting themselves on the back a wee bit.
My concern doesn’t stem from the oddity of that event. Rather the Cloud Computing that underpins AI and Super Computing. The ga-zillion giga watts of electricity for “Desert Computing,” not anything in the clouds, shocks me. In Arizona, USA, the growth of data centers and ever growing numbers of air conditioning systems, has resulted in a humming buzz so disruptive as to have tarnished/destroyed the quiet of communities nearby built in such locations (BCC) to enjoy the quiet of the surrounding desert.
The world stood by as vast portions of the Amazon rainforest were invaded for exotic wood species, “illegal” gold mining, and vast tracts of pasture. For cattle.
We’ve exceeded the 1.5° C. target from the 2015 agreement and are now enroute to exceeding the worst case 2.0° C. max. In no way do I dispute the need for an “all hands on deck” effort to use new strategies to address this problem. Maybe more Life Boats?
While that may sound a bit sardonic, I’m mostly very sad.
Working in the garden this past week, helping the next generation to love plants and flowers. My little grandson, Ben, just four years old has been fascinated by the natural world since he could first toddle around picking clover and flowers of grass. This essay today strikes home.
Everything you say here is spot on Samantha. As a species we have a dismaying habit of looking in the wrong direction. Or maybe not looking at all! And I love ‘leaf’ as ‘lifeboat’. 👌
Spot on. You and @Alpha Lo seem to be looking at the same solution path. And it's a good one. For myself, I am dispairing. I see the "anthro" in Anthropocene as the root problem. There are way too many of us and the burden of our numbers is changing the planet. Imagine fair Orkney with 200,000 people on it.
Thank you for putting me onto Alpha Lo's Climate Water Project, Michael. I hadn't come across it before. I look forward to, ahem, diving in....
In my undergraduate studies a professor stated that the world’s population had reached an unsustainable number. 3.6 billion. And the Earth cries.
I think we need to be careful about making generalisations about 'we' as human beings. Not every human has the same impact as one living in the western industrialised world, and many indigenous lifeways have been finely tuned to flourish sustainably in their environments. 'Our' consumption habits are not universal. This is why many people find the "anthro" in anthropocene very problematic, as it erases many other ways of being human. "We", as a word, always carries assumptions worth unpacking.
Thanks, Sam.
This might sound extreme, but given our consumption habits, I'd guess 750 million to a billion is about all we want.
Considering our depletion/destruction of Earth’s finite resources, that sounds about right.
You're very right, so often 'green infrastructure' is built at the expense of nature, and so many 'green activists' seem to overlook nature. Yet nature is vital.
There does seem to be a blind spot about letting natural processes do the work - of course there’s less profit to be made that way. It’s ironic that for all the politicans’ talk about ‘growth’ they’re never talking about nature when they do.
Yes, I read Rob’s piece here. We’re so certain that technology and more development is going to solve it, that the obvious - what it means for land, water and other species - rarely enters the conversation.
https://open.substack.com/pub/theclimateaccordingtolife/p/its-time-to-renature-the-climate?
Good day Sam, Informative, thought provoking, tracings of hopeful solutions. Learning of Rob Lewis, Richard Heinberg, and best of all, Patrick Geddes from more than a century ago. And so grateful for your intelligence and diligence.
As counterpoint I’ll note that AI has crowned the winner of the first AI beauty pageant. Joking? I wish I were. Submittals by well versed AI creators, and judged by a panel of two humans, well acquainted with the AI world, and two judges created by AI. Monetary awards were modest. I viewed the occasion as one to boost awareness and adoption of AI while patting themselves on the back a wee bit.
My concern doesn’t stem from the oddity of that event. Rather the Cloud Computing that underpins AI and Super Computing. The ga-zillion giga watts of electricity for “Desert Computing,” not anything in the clouds, shocks me. In Arizona, USA, the growth of data centers and ever growing numbers of air conditioning systems, has resulted in a humming buzz so disruptive as to have tarnished/destroyed the quiet of communities nearby built in such locations (BCC) to enjoy the quiet of the surrounding desert.
The world stood by as vast portions of the Amazon rainforest were invaded for exotic wood species, “illegal” gold mining, and vast tracts of pasture. For cattle.
We’ve exceeded the 1.5° C. target from the 2015 agreement and are now enroute to exceeding the worst case 2.0° C. max. In no way do I dispute the need for an “all hands on deck” effort to use new strategies to address this problem. Maybe more Life Boats?
While that may sound a bit sardonic, I’m mostly very sad.
Working in the garden this past week, helping the next generation to love plants and flowers. My little grandson, Ben, just four years old has been fascinated by the natural world since he could first toddle around picking clover and flowers of grass. This essay today strikes home.
Yes, getting their hands into the soil young, and teaching them that deep link between the earth, the plants and our own bodies is so important!
Everything you say here is spot on Samantha. As a species we have a dismaying habit of looking in the wrong direction. Or maybe not looking at all! And I love ‘leaf’ as ‘lifeboat’. 👌
Thanks, Margaret. @Rob Lewis and @Dougald Hine both explore these questions in much more depth than I have here.
Yes, I'm familiar with Dougald's work and am a great admirer of his writing, esp his book 'At Work in the Ruins'. I must check out Rob Lewis.
Me too. Dougald's book has been an important touchpoint for me, and it was through his Substack that I came across Rob Lewis.