We live in Eden. This is the paradise with the life-sustaining environment that astronomers are scouring the universe in search of. Turn the telescope around and point it at the ground. This is the planet. The one we’ve evolved with and are now trying our damndest to destroy.
Capitalism sucks, but I kinda get it. It’s just another of the silly human games we play. We make and change the rules and get very opinionated about it all. However, we need something to do, right?? And we need a way to distribute finite resources. So great, capitalism it is. It really works for a few, kinda works for some, and really doesn’t work that well for the rest, but it is the system that we’ve currently accepted. Perhaps it will hold for a long time or perhaps it is closer to being swept by the hands of time than some would suspect.
This Eden earth we inhabit has finite resources. It can only handle so much stress. So this system of capitalism that is completely reliant on exponential growth will at some point come to odds with this finite system. There won’t be enough raw materials to make anything or the planet will eventually be so depleted that it can’t sustain life. This likely won’t happen for quite a while, but unless we adapt it is the unavoidable conclusion of our current mode of operation.
Many people talk about the ways in which we can ‘save’ the planet, but in reality these people are wondering how we can save our species. George Carlin has a joke where he talks about the earth shaking us off as a dog would shake off fleas. His point being that the planet will be fine, it is actually us that will suffer and be destroyed. Our own hubris will result in our demise, but the planet will go on and return to some homeostasis before too long after our extinction.
The only measure that is never considered in the environmental debates about how to ‘save’ the planet is consuming less. Consuming less would indeed lessen our impact more than any other strategy that a single person can implement in their own lives. It is also the least expensive. We collectively sit on the precipice of expensive fixes to our energy consumption habits. Electric cars and solar-paneled roofs aren’t cheap. Indeed they’ll mitigate some of our output, but they also come with their own issues.
These products prop up the house of cards. Without constant growth the house crumbles. Even ‘green’ consumable products – electric cars, solar panels, wind turbines, and the batteries they require to be sufficient alternatives for fossil fuels – require the worst aspects of capitalism. They are reliant on the mining of precious metals, a huge distribution network, and there must be a loop established for the recycling of these rare and toxic metals and elements once they no longer function. Otherwise we are just perpetuating the consumptive cycle – exploited labor to mine, build, and distribute; consumption; a massive amount of toxic waste; repeat.
The only options we currently embrace are those of a technological future where innovation takes care of all of it. Technology is important and it very well could end up correcting the issue of climate collapse, but it also has the capacity to fully get away from us. We could get to a point, and we may already have passed it, where our preference for a treat-filled life outweighs our desire for a healthy ecological future. Each generation just pushing the problem onto the next one due to an unwillingness to make small sacrifices. This happening until the climate catastrophe goes beyond any chance at redemption.
If tech is to solve for these issues it is possible that it will just be further versions of the avatar world. A digital space devoid of real connection to nature or actual humans. We give up the birds, bees, and trees for zeros and ones. We further our distance from nature and each other. We allow the tech-savvy few to remake the world in their image – they become gods and we become subjects. As if that hasn’t already happened in some degree.
Changes to our economic structure will never be championed by prominent news sources or the entertainment industry. Their existence and proliferation is reliant on this system of exponential consumption and growth. They won’t bite the hand that feeds them. This is either nefarious at one end or selfish at the other. Neither is appropriate, but both are understood. The system selects for those willing to bend the knee to the agenda of continuous growth and consumption. It is a synergetic and symbiotic relationship.
This concept of limitlessness is a construct. It doesn’t take into consideration nature or humanity. It is a machine-like expansion of growth that will likely come to an end with an AI that usurps us as master of the planet. Maybe that’s a thousand years. Maybe it’s five years. Maybe it already happened and we’ve yet to recognize.
Technology in its current form will not bring about climate correction. Instead it will either exacerbate it or create a solely digital world. The only thing preventing a return to Eden is the conquering of our self-indulgent tendencies. We can reject the status quo and the ‘normal’ notions of what it means to be a modern human. A notion that is consistently sold to us via every aspect of modern tech and media.
This capitalist system selects for selfishness. It is predicated and reliant upon our desires being limitless. It requires us to keep searching outside of ourselves for meaning, satisfaction, and acceptance. This insecurity that keeps us striving for more could ultimately lead to our demise. All for the sake of filling our physical and mental spaces with ‘things’ that we’ve only been duped into thinking will make us whole.
This planet is the garden of Eden. Our hyper-engagement with modern tech and media is making us forget that. We are a part of nature, not apart from nature. Our dominate societal narrative seems hellbent on convincing us of our supremacy over nature, but I fear this could be our gravest error as a species. We as a species have expressed our arrogance and hubris numerous times, and often we are forced to learn hard lessons at the expense of human life. My fears and hopes for the future are all predicated on our ability to control our superfluous desires. I maintain hope, but am not as confident as I’d like to be.
I appreciate your attention and hope you’ve found value in this.
Thanks for reading and please take care of each other.
Billy's Briefs 