'Humanity Is Still on the Way to Destroying Itself'

[marmar]

from Der Spiegel:



In 1972, environmental guru Dennis Meadows predicted in his seminal study "The Limits to Growth" that the world was heading toward an economic collapse. Forty years on, he tells SPIEGEL ONLINE that nothing he has seen since has made him change his mind.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Professor Meadows, 40 years ago you published "The Limits to Growth" together with your wife and colleagues, a book that made you the intellectual father of the environmental movement. The core message of the book remains valid today: Humanity is ruthlessly exploiting global resources and is on the way to destroying itself. Do you believe that the ultimate collapse of our economic system can still be avoided?

Meadows: The problem that faces our societies is that we have developed industries and policies that were appropriate at a certain moment, but now start to reduce human welfare, like for example the oil and car industry. Their political and financial power is so great and they can prevent change. It is my expectation that they will succeed. This means that we are going to evolve through crisis, not through proactive change.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Several central forecasts you made in the book have come true, the exponential growth of the world's population, for example, and widespread environmental destruction. Your prediction regarding economic growth, namely that it would ultimately cease and the global economy would collapse, has not yet come to pass.

Meadows: The fact that the collapse hasn't occurred so far doesn't mean it won't take place in the future. There is no doubt that the world is changing, and we will have to go along with it. There are two ways to do that: One is, you see the necessity of change ahead of time and you make the change, and the second is that you don't and are finally forced to do it anyway. Let's say that you're driving a car inside a factory building. There are two ways to stop: Either you put on the brakes or you keep going and hit the wall. But stop you will, because the building is finite. And the same holds true for Earth's resources. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/limits-to-growth-author-dennis-meadows-says-that-crisis-is-approaching-a-871570.html

[RKP5637]

1. I don't expect to see a graceful change. Most change it seems only comes about as the

result of catastrophes. If $$$$$ is involved and change for the better might reduce $$$$$ then generally change gets pushed under the carpet as dirt.

[Vox Moi]

2. It is in our nature. Remember Easter Island.

The residents denuded the once tree-covered island.
In the most isolated spot on the globe they used up their resources, coming to blows with each other as they cut down the last trees. We enlightened, educated and environmentally aware moderns might ask 'what were they thinking?'.
Sometime in the future our descendants (if there are any) will marvel at our science and technology and wonder how we could have possibly misread a simple graph showing CO2 levels far above any in recent history.
Even if we stopped CO2 emissions today, the effects will still compound.
The methane seeps and the melting permafrost create a positive feedback on the warming process ... we know all this and are still burning fossil fuels like crazy.
Folks: I think that by the time the situation gets bad enough to alarm a significant majority to a meaningful degree it will probably be too late.
I still have hope, however. Maybe that makes me an Easter Islander.

[hatrack]

4. Our responses to date - building ever-bigger stone heads!

[NoOneMan]

5. A unique culture with a unique religion did that

It is not human "nature" to cultivate and dominate nature, but rather, groups that choose to can harness the vast energy needed to proliferate and expand outward. We cannot observe human nature without operating on a blank slate and removing culture from the equation.

[Vox Moi]

6. Many other cultures have done similar things ...

... the extermination or near extermination of useful species such as whales and bison.
... the destruction of tidal wetlands.
... the depletion of fishing grounds to the point that they no longer produce
... the illegal dumping of toxic and radioactive waste for short-term profit
... the ongoing destruction of the Amazon Rain forest
All these things are outright damage of vital natural resources that will catch up with us.
I don't think that was an anomaly but rather a cautionary tale that applies humans in general.
We might throw in one more thing:
by the overuse of antibiotics for short-term gain (especially in cases where antibiotics are prescribed but not indicated) we are breeding strains of ever-more resistant bacteria. This is an arms race we cannot win but so far, we can't seem to do much about it.

[NoOneMan]

7. And many have not

Most that have were agriculturalist societies who were theists as well. Many who have not were horitcultural or foraging societies that were animist/pantheists

[ananda]

3. Carpe diem.

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