My last article focused on mindsets and how they can lead us into traps. One of the most pervasive of these traps is the energy trap. People are constantly searching for new types of energy, new energy generation, and/or ways to improve energy efficiency, ALL of which unfortunately are ultimately dead ends. The search for this energy is often with the idea to reduce emissions in an effort to reduce the effects of climate change. The trouble is in the fact that this ignores the root predicament of ecological overshoot and that producing more energy requires destruction of our planet resulting in MORE ecological overshoot, not less. Ultimately, the only way to reduce emissions is to consume less globally, period. I pointed this out in my article, What Would it Take for Humanity to Experience Radical Transformation? and added that continuing civilization is a non-starter. Yet, practically every single idea we see to “solve” climate change consists of ideas to ramp up energy production in one way or another or to continue civilization, the very continuation of which is driving us to the edge of extinction. Why do we still fail to see that what most all of our ideas attempt is impossible and only leads to ruination? Why can we not see that degrowth and contraction are the only options? Why not instead focus on ideas which help and support the only two options that are actually possible, feasible, and practical? Politically speaking, mentioning ideas that would conform to this trajectory would be a death sentence for the politician, and so we continue on unsustainable paths and continue kicking the can down the road.
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