Ahab and the Moderns

An opinion piece in today's Times argues that to remain competitive, America must modernize its infrastructure. Not a new idea. The authors are particularly worried about the grid, saying : "Unless we expand energy generation and build out transmission aggressively, the lights will start to flicker on our future prosperity." Ah yes, training these brilliant chatbots takes lots of juice, but we have to be modern, steady march of progress and all that. The trajectory is not to be questioned. Our prosperous future depends on technological advancement and more complexity, an accelerated pace. But, according to the authors, America has lost its "momentum": "All this is happening while our rivals are building fast. China will spend $138 billion on A.I., robotics and smart infrastructure as part of its “Made in China 2025” plan. Europe is modernizing its ports, roads and digital networks to stay competitive." Somebody is going to have to break the bad news that the planet cannot provide this modern dreamscape. No matter how much investment they are prepared to make to build this energy-intensive future, we have run up against biophysical boundaries, ecological limits, that make all these plans impossible. Like Ahab, they can rage all they want against nature. It won't change the reality of those limits. This is what the late Bruno Latour was trying to describe with his airplane metaphor: There is no modern future upon which to land - but neither can we return to the old airport from which we took off. In very short order we have to create a new land on which we can land, one that repects the limits of planetary boundaries.

Fun While It Lasted

I have rigorously researched the quantity of fossil fuels that Americans consume for entertainment / recreation on an average Saturday in June and it exceeds the yearly consumption of all African and Carribean nations combined. In my calculations I have included motor boats and the trucks needed to pull them, jetskis, racecars of all classes, sporting events, joy riding and fishing trips. Cruises.Jet travel. Etc. Just kidding. I don't have anywhere near the energy or inclination for such a study. But that doesn't mean it isn't true! The point is, you will have to pry American's toys from their cold, dead fingers, along with their guns. And at the same time they are burning all this fun-fuel, they will complain about how they have been unfairly taken advantage of by the rest of the planet. And how they're done with being the nice guy.Time to get what's rightly theirs! The quintessentially American term "joy riding" kind of says it all. Even if they believed climate change was an existential threat, most citizen/consumers would have to think long and hard about giving up joy riding just to save their children's future. Generally (again, according to my research), those same Americans believe climate change is a "problem" that Elon and the Tech Bros are working on and will soon solve with some cyber wizardry. Since few of the "best and brightest masters of the universe" seem concerned, they aren't either. Certainly not enough to give up the jetski, go-cart or ATV. So yes, we've got trouble, right here in River City, with a capital T that ryhmes with P that stands for phuel. And Production. And Progress. All of which are toast. No easy way to tell the Modernizers that the dream which has sustained them for two hundred years is in fact a nightmare. I included fishing trips in the recreation category because that is how I burn my grandchildrens future, chasing trout around Montana and other salt-water speicies in their various habitats. Sorry kiddos. It's just how we all roll.