Quote:
Originally Posted by renormalised
The change will have to initially come from those who are most guilty of the mess we're in now....us. The rest of the world will have to be brought along. But if we don't make the first move, you can be rest assured that nothing good will come of our inaction.
Technology is just a tool and won't solve the problems we face. If you don't want to use a tool, you don't. It's who uses that tool that makes the changes...the person behind it.
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Yes from a moral point of view we, who caused to the problem, should bear the responsibility of solving it. But that's theory, I don't see it happening any time soon. Another issue is that the developing countries, are now pumping out CO2 and pollutants at a rate higher than ever. Look at some of the places in China that are uninhabitable due to toxic waste, mining etc. So such countries also bear some responsibility at the present stage I think. But anyway I'm merely saying how I think all this will play out, not regarding who is responsible or what the ethically correct thing to do might be.
As we saw with the recent farce at the climate summit in Copenhagen, it's a bit of a stalemate. No country want to have imposed limitations on its growth unless all the others agree to the same and these issues are just not being taken seriously enough at the moment. Unfortunately I don't think they will be until it is far too late ie. once the ecosystems are degraded enough that it has a real impact on everyday people's lives all over the world.
Basically I don't think we can curb humanity's basic desire for comfort and improved lifestyle. It has never happened. And so the problem is overpopulation. But that can't really be controlled either I think. Once a nation develops to a certain level it's people tend to have less children, to the point where in some of the developed countries the population is static or even declining at the moment. I think that point will eventually be reached everywhere in the world, but not until the global population has reached some 9-11 billion. So to me technology seems the only solution in the long term, but we won't have the necessary tools until the destruction has already occurred.