Bioregion and Eaarth

       McKibben talked about the need for more local food production and the detrimental effects of long distance food transportation. Although growing corn in the western United States in mass and growing oranges in Florida in mass may be more cost effective, the long distance transportation to the rest of the country leaves behind a massive carbon footprint. McKibben advocated for a more local means of food production of growing crops local to your area on smaller scale operations. McKibben believes the future of agriculture may be smaller scale and less automation. The growth of urban agriculture and utilizing the available open space such as rooftops and courtyards for growing fruits and vegetables would be another step in the right direction. McKibben also offered support for solar and wind power generation as the future of energy favoring them over nuclear power.
       Based on a show of hands in class, the vast majority of the population including myself are entirely ignorant on the subject of local agriculture, wildlife, and where our water and waste goes. The current generation of young people are more disconnected from the land and wildlife than ever before.

Environmental Issue

            The most important environmental issue that could create a need for an island civilization is the need for clean and abundant energy sources. According to the statistical research of  Hans Rosling, if the developing countries of the world that are still living in extreme poverty can be brought out of the third world and the child mortality rate drops significantly, then the world’s population growth problems will disappear. According to Hans Rosling, with economic growth, come better conditions for women and children, which in turn result in more stable populations. He projects that the world population will stabilize at nine or ten billion, meaning that the problem of population growth may be on its way to being solved. The major issue with this future is how to provide for the energy needs of a whole planet of developed nations. If the entire world produced the amount of pollution and greenhouse gasses that are produced in North America, there would be no hope for the planet. In order to meet the energy needs of the rapidly developing world, we will need major innovations in the generation, storage, and transport of energy.
            In order to create a sustainable energy future for the entire world, we may need a combination of innovations in energy generation and storage. Solar and wind power are great sources of power generation, however, in order to use them as our primary sources of power, we will need to drastically improve our storage and transport of the power. Batteries are one option, but at the moment the technology is far too expensive, and the transport of this power may require the burning of fossil fuels. This technology may not be effective everywhere, although there are many places in the United States that could benefit from it, such as California, Florida, and any other sunny or windy area of the country. It may take advancements in and the adoption of hydrogen as a major fuel source or adoption of other technologies such as compressed air or gravitational storage to make these energy sources reasonable and clean.
            One other option that could power the entire world is the use of IFR (Integral Fast Reactor) or LFTR (Liquid-Fluoride Thorium Reactor) technology. Fourth generation nuclear power has the potential to power the entire world cleanly and is capable of burning our current nuclear waste as fuel. This could eliminate the problem of nuclear waste and provide centuries or more of power off of the current waste alone. The fourth generation nuclear reactors have the potential to be 100 to 300 times more efficient than current technologies. These advances in nuclear power are projected to be available by 2030 or earlier if support grows. The United States has the most nuclear power plants of any country, and although the current plants have entire lifetimes to play out, their waste may become useful soon enough. If the projected goal can be met and implemented quickly, there may be a clean energy future on the horizon.

            If technology such as this is implemented in the developing world, they may not need to undergo the messy industrial revolutions of the past by burning fossil fuels.  Switching the developed nations over to renewable energy and providing new technologies for the developing world are vital objective to ensure the survival of the planet and life on it.


http://ossfoundation.us/projects/energy
http://ossfoundation.us/projects/energy/nuclear
http://www.gapminder.org/

Island Civilization Summary and Criticism

Island Civilization Summary and Criticism

            Island Civilization by Roderick Frazier Nash gives background history about the trajectory of human progress and presents solutions to pressing obstacles in humanity’s near future. He begins by explaining the origins of idea of wilderness and the wild. According to Nash, the drive to settle wild lands began after the Neolithic Revolution with the advent of farming and animal husbandry when humans were holding territory and began building settlements. This drive has been a major part of western civilization for the past centuries and over time the west had become practiced at the breaking “wild” territories and peoples. Nash accuses western capitalistic society of being dangerously driven to expand to the point of self-destruction.

            Nash continues by laying out stages of progression in thought on the subject of wilderness and the value of nature. As Manifest Destiny took hold and the wilderness dwindled in size, people began to assign more value to nature. Wilderness took on a utilitarian purpose of being the object of human appreciation and a tourist attraction. The protection of wildlife was only a side effect of the protection of the wild lands for entertainment and inspiration. The next stage of thought occurred in the past century as biological sciences gave new insight into the “purpose” and possible necessity of the natural order and the wild. Today only 2% of the mainland United States is officially wild territory.
            With the population growing at a staggering rate and the environment and global balance in jeopardy, Nash lays out four outcomes for the future of our planet. His first scenario is a wasteland scenario. In this scenario the human race could expand and consume to the point of self-destruction taking much of the planets ecosystem with it. His second scenario is the garden scenario. In the garden scenario humanity inhabits every corner of the earth and farms resources from the most useful domesticated animals, pushing larger wildlife to extinction. The third scenario is future primitive, a future where technological civilization is written off as a bad experiment. The fourth and final scenario laid out is the island civilization. The island civilization consists of islands of humanity with 15 million person populations living in efficient and self-sufficient mega cities scattered around the globe. This scenario is important because it would allow evolution to occur naturally outside its borders.
            While I think Mr. Nash has many good ideas and a valuable historical perspective, his island civilization may have some flaws and may be too idealistic. I think the number one priority should be to slow population growth worldwide and as Nash suggests try to reduce the world population significantly in order to avert global catastrophe. The second priority should be to reduce the consumption of resources in the United States and other “first world” countries. These two things should bring stability to the planet even under the current conditions.

            I believe professor Nash reached his conclusion about island civilizations due to the immense value he assigns to nature operating free of human influence. While I think having ongoing evolution and thriving wildlife in the future is something to be desired, I wouldn’t build my entire civilization around that sole purpose. With that purpose Nash reached the conclusion that “wilderness” should dominate the Earth in the future with humanity occupying a fraction of the planet. Why not have humanity evenly distributed around the globe with relatively low and even population density with large pockets of protected wildlife?

            Another problem I see with Nash’s Island Civilization is the incredible amount of personal freedom that must be relinquished in order to reach his utopian society. It would take an enormous amount of cooperation and could result in dystopias. One last problem I have with Nash’s scenarios is that they are all very extreme directions with no middle ground. I can imagine blends of these different scenarios playing out on smaller scales and around the globe at some point in the future. Realistically however, I can see the garden scenario playing out if we continue down the course we are on as it would not require us to give up on consumerism