James Howard Kustler frequently emphasizes the crucial point that technology is not a replacement for energy. This is no less true for ethics.
"Technology is not a substitute for enlightened self-restraint. To the contrary, the more powerful and complex the technologies that we-the-people choose to adopt, the greater the caution and the more refined the precision we must exercise in the deployment, lest through inadvertence or lack of foresight those technologies undermine or destroy the foundational ecosystems that sustain human life." - Hans Noeldner, 29 Jul 2008
Man with 11,000 watts of technology at his disposal 24/7/365 can do far more damage to his fellow human beings - and his home planet - than Man with 300. (Incidentally, the average automobile produces significantly more than 11,000 watts at highway speeds...)
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
No Race for Small Footprints
Burning through aviation fuel just as fast as money. Multiple flights per candidate per day. High-speed armored convoys at every stop. And always with a phalanx of fossil-fueled media in their wake.
It’s not just that prospects with small Footprints need not apply for the job. No, it’s also the virtual certainty that our frenzied election process will quickly cull anyone – candidate or newsperson – who has any VISCERAL comprehension of how small we-the-people must make our Ecological Footprints to save Earth. Walking gently and living carbon-lite are totally alien to their way of life. If those who are swept up in this hyper-metabolic machine “got it”, they’d either go mad or have to quit out of conscience.
We are damned fools to expect either Obama or McCain to lead us to the Sustainable Promised Land – or for the mainstream media to reveal where it is on the map. They’ve long since flown far beyond it, and they aren’t looking back.
It’s not just that prospects with small Footprints need not apply for the job. No, it’s also the virtual certainty that our frenzied election process will quickly cull anyone – candidate or newsperson – who has any VISCERAL comprehension of how small we-the-people must make our Ecological Footprints to save Earth. Walking gently and living carbon-lite are totally alien to their way of life. If those who are swept up in this hyper-metabolic machine “got it”, they’d either go mad or have to quit out of conscience.
We are damned fools to expect either Obama or McCain to lead us to the Sustainable Promised Land – or for the mainstream media to reveal where it is on the map. They’ve long since flown far beyond it, and they aren’t looking back.
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