{"id":66137,"date":"2023-11-14T07:18:57","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T12:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=66137"},"modified":"2023-11-14T07:47:12","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T12:47:12","slug":"our-energy-needs-are-driving-a-mass-extinction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=66137","title":{"rendered":"Our Energy “Needs” Are Driving a Mass Extinction"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Our Energy “Needs” Are Driving a Mass Extinction<\/a><\/h3>\n

Nuclear, fossil fuels, and renewable energy all cause major harm to ecosystems. Are we willing to accept these limits?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Clouds of smoke from record wildfires rise above the Russian Arctic in summer 2010 \u2014 at that time, the hottest on record in the region. Photo by the author.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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The writer Mart\u00edn Prechtel often talks of the Tzutujil Mayan culture he was adopted into, and that community\u2019s relationship with technology. He describes that, in their traditional ways, the production of a tool such as a knife was a grave and serious matter. Throughout the physical effort of creating the knife, mounting a handle, and sharpening the blade, and extending throughout its use, many prayers and lengthy and exhausting ceremonies were required.<\/p>\n

The power of the knife, Prechtel says, requires a spiritual expense, a lengthy reflection and meditation on the origins of the materials, the intended use, the ramifications of the technology, and the proper mindset with which it is to be used.<\/p>\n

The Tzutujil Maya, Prechtel says, didn\u2019t invent bulldozers or aircraft carries\u2014not from any stupidity, but out of a cultural recognition of the costs (ecological, material, and spiritual) of such technologies.<\/p>\n

The contrast between this approach to our physical tools and their impacts on the world around us and our communities could hardly be more different from the perspective on technology in modern civilization. Rarely do we ask the question, \u201cshould we invent this?\u201d Even more rarely is that question answered with \u201cno\u201d\u2014at least, not by the people with the power to influence the outcome.<\/p>\n

Today, every new technology which can give military or business advantage is essentially automatically accepted. The ideology of progress has evolved from \u201cmanifest destiny\u201d to \u201ctechnological progress.\u201d But the genocide and ecocide continues to underly the process of expansion. The Chickasaw writer Linda Hogan calls this \u201ca sort of madness that is a god to people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our Energy “Needs” Are Driving a Mass Extinction Nuclear, fossil fuels, and renewable energy all cause major harm to ecosystems. Are we willing to accept these limits? Clouds of smoke from record wildfires rise above the Russian Arctic in summer 2010 \u2014 at that time, the hottest on record in the region. Photo by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,7],"tags":[33999,2715,21855],"class_list":["post-66137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","category-survival-2","tag-biocentric","tag-mass-extinction","tag-max-wilbert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66137"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66141,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66137\/revisions\/66141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}