Ecomodernism

The environmental movement has traditionally been rooted in the unspoken assumption that we must fix the environment by reversing the damage that we did to it in the past. The solution to CO2 emissions from burning fuel is to burn less fuel. If modern technology is causing these problems, then we must scale back our reliance on technology. We destroyed the environment with overconsumption and now we must heal it by reducing consumption.

But there is a new school of thought that rejects these assumptions. Ecomodernism is a philosophy that believes that technology and consumption are the tools with which to repair our damage to the environment. They embrace solutions that have generally been rejected by environmentalists in the past: e.g. genetic modification, nuclear energy, and carbon dioxide removal. Perhaps their worst blasphemy is their belief that we might achieve sustainability without making hard sacrifices and changing our lifestyle.

Ecomodernism has been criticized for being idealistic in its assumptions about what we can achieve through technology and also in its assumptions about what we could achieve politically. Is ecomodernism an improvement over more traditional environmentalism? Does it make some legitimate arguments? What is the way forward to preserve our planet?

Excerpt

Ecomodernism is a philosophy that believes that technology and consumption are the tools with which to repair our damage to the environment. They embrace solutions that have generally been rejected by environmentalists in the past: e.g. genetic modification, nuclear energy, and carbon dioxide removal. Perhaps their worst blasphemy is their belief that we might achieve sustainability without making hard sacrifices and changing our lifestyle. What is the way forward to preserve our planet?

Suggested Reading

License

This text is shared under a Creative Commons 0 "no rights reserved" license. Feel free to copy it, modify it and use however you wish.

Tags

Environment [6] Ethics [20] Futurism [7] Technology [6]