Max Bound
Currently climate scientists are worried that we do not have much time to change things in away that can prevent very major problems down the track. The tragedy of New Orleans and similar flooding disasters plus increasingly worse droughts in Australia, are examples of likely happenings, as climate behaviour becomes more erratic. If we act now such damages might be averted or at least lessened considerably.
HUMAN inventiveness has been and still is harnessed to serve the purpose of short-term profit for large corporations. Irresponsible Governmental approaches and policies have allowed these corporations to make the key decisions, about technology and the economy
We were warned of this by Leonie Sandercock in Australian Society Sept. 1st 1983 when she wrote:-“… as we design technological systems we are in fact designing sets of social relationships. A society’s technology is an integral part of its politics, and present technological systems are used for purposes of political control by the large companies”
In his Future Shock Toffler speculates about the effects of the ‘accelerative thrust’ of technological change being as traumatic as the beginning of “the evolution of man’s” (human kind’s) “predecessors from sea creatures to land creatures ( A quote from Lawrence Suhm used by Toffler, Alvin pub Pan Books 1971 p296) He makes the point that human beings have survived phenomenal changes, but that there are definite limits to what we can survive. And on page 387 he wrote: “No matter how individuals try to pace their lives, no matter what psychic crutches we offer them, no matter how we alter education, the society as a whole will be caught on a runaway treadmill until we capture control of the accelerative thrust itself.” (Toffler 1971)
Importantly Toffler emphasises that the answer is not to abandon technology but to be selective and conscious that technological development has far reaching consequences.
Currently climate scientists are worried that we do not have much time to change things in away that can prevent very major problems down the track. The tragedy of New Orleans and similar flooding disasters plus increasingly worse droughts in Australia, are examples of likely happenings, as climate behaviour becomes more erratic. If we act now such damages might be averted or at least lessened considerably.
The forward thinking and vision for the future Toffler advocated as a necessity nearly four decades ago needs to become common practice in all major governmental, economic, and social decision making. This applies particularly, but by no means only, to decisions about allocation of resources for research concerning what technologies will be encouraged and developed
Again we were warned in Australian Options Dec 1995 by Professor Ian Lowe. Discussing the need to establish public control of technology he wrote: “If we don’t use it to shape the sort of society we want, it will be used by others to give society the shape they want — which is unlikely to be a just ,sustainable society.” (Lowe Ian Australian Options Dec 1995) My only comment is how tragically true the above words now seem to be.
Some people will ask about the population issue. They still believe as Paul Ehrlich argued in The Population Bomb (1972) that over population is the greatest threat to the human species. (For comment on later shifts in Ehrlich’s position see Peter Hay Main Currents in Western Environmental Thought pub UNSW Press. 2002 p.174and 178)
True population is a real issue but it is secondary to the effects of wrong choices in what technologies have been developed, and to the effects of the consumer society. Production of the weapons of modern war, and modern war itself also add massively to greenhouse pollution. The centre of our Global Warming problem is the policies and practices of what are in fact a minority of the world’s people living in the developed countries. It cannot be pushed off and the blame laid at the door of the poor.
The mass media essentially controlled by a few rich and powerful people works hard at misrepresenting the realities of the causes of Global Warming. Thus every avenue of activity by people who care is essential to effecting the changes in our economic and social directions that the reality of Global Warming confronts us with.
The tasks are many and vary from the simple to the complex. We can all find ways to contribute to ensuring a decent future for those who are now young and those who come after us and after them.
The Feb 10th and 11th Seminar on Global warming (Details here) is essentially about learning more and finding ways to individually and collectively act for a human future.
Max Bound is an Octogenarian with life long experience as a social-political activist including over 30 years as an environmental activist. He is retired from a working life as a labourer, coal miner, tram conductor, organiser, building worker — and after mature age tertiary studies and receiving a B A in Environmental Design and Graduate Diploma in Urban planning, work as a planner, Research Officer and Coordinator.
