Engineering the Planet

1
Engineering the Planet

• What Compels us to do so?

2
Consumption is Good?

• This depends entirely on where you are in
  history.
• Does history have a moral obligation to preserve
  itself?
• Is the highest form of enlightenment really
  consumerism?
• Is the increase in global inequity worth the
  price of consumption?

3
Critical Question

• Can This Century also stand a 4-fold increase in
  world population (from 6 to 24 billion)
• Remember, consumption is good so why not stay the
  course?
• Will the emerging world market of China promote
  this kind of growth in the same way the
  industrial revolution did?

4
A Century of Change (1900 (1) vs. 2000)

• Industrial Output 40 (Newtonian footprint)
• Marine Fish Catch 35
• CO2 Emissions 17
• Total Energy Use 16
• Coal Production 7
• World Population 4
• Forest Area 0.8

5
Probable Climate Change as our Legacy of
Consumption
6
Science, Technology, Humanity

• We are special (different than other animals)
• We are uniquely positioned at the center of the
  Universe (reflects our specialness)
• The Universe is ordered, logical and rational
• With the application of Reason, humankind is
  unbounded
• The Newtonian world shows us the machine and it
  is precise

7
Continued

• Life is a struggle competition is natural
  gradual change occurs (Darwin)
• Science now certifies ? Survival of the fittest
  and the engineering of society to protect that
  outcome (Spencer)
• The notion of uncertainty, as a valid scientific
  concept, arises too late in this process

8
Example of the Malthusian Footprint

• Human activities/growth obliterate equilibrium
  time scales for instance, the current excess
  injection of CO2 into the atmosphere is 26 of
  the equilibrium rate

A HUGE PERTURBATION
9
Our Current Situation

• Lack of complete physical understanding that the
  Earth is a connected system.
• Inability to enact long term proactive strategies
  and decision making
• Inability to deal with data ambiguity and
  complexity we want an expert to tell us so
• We dont respond unless there is a

10
Fundamental Reason

• No Wisdom has yet been applied to planetary
  management
• Whose to blame for this?

Every One of Us
11
GOD
Certainty Entitlement Aarogance
Connectivity Of Atoms
HUMANS
HUMANS
NATURE
Wisdom Enlightenment Humility
Super Nova
ROCKS
TREES
TREES
ROCKS
Everything Is Connected to
Everything
Disconnected States