Besides mentioning “We have the technology and knowledge to fix the planet”, I didn’t notice her say anything else that could be construed as techno-solutionism. Solarpunk itself assumes some level of technology used appropriately and sustainably to achieve a desirable yet non-polluting or destructive society, so I don’t see anything objectionable from that statement. The first segment in the video also goes into how there is a tremendous amount of bad things happening.
As for tackling specific doomer arguments like Limits to Growth or resource scarcity, I don’t mean to speak for her, but it may be that she doesn’t fundamentally disagree with those warnings, yet just doesn’t think they’ll spell the doom of us all and to just give up. According to her video on economies, she seems to be a fan of Degrowth, and favorited this comment there by TheQuietPartIsLoud:
Green growth really is it’s own oxymoron. I especially have been hearing a lot of people talking about changing populations, and the slowing of population growth as some sort of apocalyptic issue for global economies. And the hilarious thing is that people espousing alarmism regarding population slowing forget to ask “Why the hell does our economy HURT us if we don’t reproduce at an unsustainable pace?” Maybe because global economies >aren’t?? sustainable?? Lmao.
Great video, the more that is said to counter lazy, and defeatist looks at where economics, and sustainability intersect, the better. Degrowth ftw.
We should keep in mind that it’s a systemic problem, which means we should change the system. Sure we’ll rely on technology, but that alone won’t be enough and we’ll have to rethink how we live with other people.
Limits to Growth isn’t really about degrowth, but that constant growth isn’t a sustainable model and we should change that. It was a warning in 1972, it’s now a possible future.
It’s not an individual problem, but a systemic problem. And some people are gaming the system against the vast majority, and we are not winning.
I agree we should explore how to fix this, and ways to organize ourselves to grow food, but we shouldn’t think it will be easy to live in a peaceful world. As Trump is elected, there are some clear sign we will go to war…
We should keep in mind that it’s a systemic problem, which means we should change the system. Sure we’ll rely on technology, but that alone won’t be enough and we’ll have to rethink how we live with other people.
Agreed. While I think renewable energy will be essential, prefiguring new horizontal structures before things collapse and implementing the groundwork to transition away from endless growth and capitalism will be just as important.
but we shouldn’t think it will be easy to live in a peaceful world. As Trump is elected, there are some clear sign we will go to war…
It certainly won’t be easy, the next few decades look to be quite dark indeed. I hope we can avoid all out war, the suffering in Ukraine and Gaza alone is incomprehensible.
Besides mentioning “We have the technology and knowledge to fix the planet”, I didn’t notice her say anything else that could be construed as techno-solutionism. Solarpunk itself assumes some level of technology used appropriately and sustainably to achieve a desirable yet non-polluting or destructive society, so I don’t see anything objectionable from that statement. The first segment in the video also goes into how there is a tremendous amount of bad things happening.
As for tackling specific doomer arguments like Limits to Growth or resource scarcity, I don’t mean to speak for her, but it may be that she doesn’t fundamentally disagree with those warnings, yet just doesn’t think they’ll spell the doom of us all and to just give up. According to her video on economies, she seems to be a fan of Degrowth, and favorited this comment there by TheQuietPartIsLoud:
Thanks for your detailed answer.
We should keep in mind that it’s a systemic problem, which means we should change the system. Sure we’ll rely on technology, but that alone won’t be enough and we’ll have to rethink how we live with other people.
Limits to Growth isn’t really about degrowth, but that constant growth isn’t a sustainable model and we should change that. It was a warning in 1972, it’s now a possible future.
It’s not an individual problem, but a systemic problem. And some people are gaming the system against the vast majority, and we are not winning.
I agree we should explore how to fix this, and ways to organize ourselves to grow food, but we shouldn’t think it will be easy to live in a peaceful world. As Trump is elected, there are some clear sign we will go to war…
Agreed. While I think renewable energy will be essential, prefiguring new horizontal structures before things collapse and implementing the groundwork to transition away from endless growth and capitalism will be just as important.
It certainly won’t be easy, the next few decades look to be quite dark indeed. I hope we can avoid all out war, the suffering in Ukraine and Gaza alone is incomprehensible.
Feels like world peace just shifted with Trump inauguration…