20 Nov 2024
Our technology trap
In some parts of the world if people want to trap a large animal, they will dig a deep pit and camouflage it with branches. When the unfortunate creature walks onto the branches they give way and it falls into the hole to await its fate at the hands of humans. Modern society has dug its own trap and most of us have fallen in. I call it the technology trap. We have developed energy systems based on fossil fuels. We have food and forestry systems based on those same fuels plus the constant expansion into what was wilderness, destroying existing ecosystems and eliminating wilderness and wild creatures. We rely on fossil fuels to power much of modern technology whether it’s our cars, heating and cooling or electricity generation. We count on getting more food for a growing global population. We cut more forests both to clear crop and grazing land and for wood to build homes for the growing population. The modern industrial world depends on doing things that undermine its very future. The burning of so much coal, oil and natural gas is changing our atmosphere creating more violent and unstable weather that is killing people and destroying homes and businesses. The conversion of natural areas to farms reduces the ecosystem services that nature provides gratis. The world has started to build new power systems based on clean electricity but it will take years for them to replace fossil fuels. The animal that falls in the pit has neither the knowledge nor equipment to get back out on their own. Will humans be smart enough get out of the trap we have built before it’s too late.