In some ways technology is its own greatest enemy. Its very quickness, its shiny cleverness, its neat problem-solution dynamic is irresistible. It has solved, and at least can, ‘solve’, or contribute to, solutions to a whole range of world environment problems, but the larger and more complex problems, such as climate change, become, the less likely it is that technology will ‘save us’, and slavish adherence to its narrow and simplistic path will often condemn us to ignoring wider, more fundamental aspects of a problem. More seriously still, it can make matters worse through unintended and unanticipated side-effects.
It is into this world of technological fixes that Elizabeth Kolbert steps, in her fascinating ‘Under a White Sky’1. She ranges across all types of issues, both waste/pollution issues and non-waste, including:
- River pollution and flood management (the Chicago River, as per 10.1, and the Mississippi, USA);
- Threatened species management (desert pupfish species in the American desert of SW USA);
- Coral reef protection and regeneration from solar bleaching (Great Barrier Reef, Australia);
- Introduced species management (Cane Toads, Australia, and Carp, USA);
- Carbon capture and storage (Iceland, see also 8.4, and Greenland);
- Solar geoengineering to ‘shade’ the earth (hence the book’s title).
Kolbert marvels at both our ingenuity and, sometimes, our idiocy, as she explores the people and the thinking behind these projects, but what is consistent is that they are clever in their own way, but often lacking in perspective and sophistication. The more aware amongst the proponents admit that they are treating symptoms, not deep, driving causes, but say that there simply is not time to bring sweeping societal changes into effect, and so must act now, in ‘emergency’ mode.
Read the book and make up your own mind as to whether the case studies represent hope, or desperation, displacement, and delusion. Sadly, I mostly see the latter three, but I am not a technological person and live at its margins, unskilled in its language and mostly unresponsive to its charms.
1 Kolbert, E. Under a White Sky. Bodley Head, London, UK.
