5 Responses to “I know rockets produce CO2”. Here’s why that’s a win.

1. SoundEagle 🦅ೋღஜஇ says:

   29 May 2021 at 01:15

   The said post is available at https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2013/07/13/soundeagle-in-debating-animal-artistry-and-musicality/

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2. SoundEagle 🦅ೋღஜஇ says:

   29 May 2021 at 00:41

   Dear Jan Galkowski,

   Hi! The language and stance adopted by Elon Musk are very much that of a technoutopian. Despite years of flashing out the (conceptual, philosophical, ethical, practical and/or social) framework in examining the possibility or plausibility of environmentalism meeting the needs and expectations of all humanity to help us to survive as a species, fundamental progress is still far too slow. There may be no hope for humanity on Earth as we continue our wasteful and non-sustainable existence plus over-population. As for the future of humanity and migrating to other extra-terrestrial world(s), I have the following to add. Let me quote just a paragraph from one of my fellow bloggers by the name of Robert Elessar as follows:

   Of course, as physicist and pioneer of quantum computation David Deutsch argues beautifully in his book The Beginning of Infinity, we humans—and our descendants, whether biological or technological or both—have the potential really to become significant on a cosmic scale. As he also points out, there is no guarantee that we will do so, but there appears to be nothing in the laws of nature that prevents it. It’s up to us** to decide.

   Furthermore, I would like to add that the culture of expansion and exploitation as well as the ever-burgeoning population seem to be both the crux of, and the bottleneck to, our becoming significant on a cosmic scale.

   Since the human species has not (always, adequately and/or consistently) been a good custodian of the environment and the Earth (not to mention countless wars, atrocities, resource depletions, species extinctions, environmental degradations and so on, plus an area of rainforest as big as 100,000 football courts is being cleared or destroyed everyday), there is no assurance that once the human species migrates to another planet, the same problems would not again surface and plague us, perhaps at an even quickening and/or devastating pace as a result of better and greater expansion, production and technology. We would indeed export our baggage and problems to other worlds!

   Another blogger, Matthew Wright, commented to SoundEagle on 16 July 2013 at 11:39 pm as follows:

   I think if we went to Mars, we’d deal to it the same way we’re currently dealing to Earth. Richard Attenborough summed it up when he referred to us as the ‘scourge’ of the planet. Caused an outcry, but it seems to be true. Jared Diamond has published a good analysis of it, if a little deterministic for my liking. The reason would seem to be a faulty survival mechanism – hard-wired techniques for maximising resources that worked when we were on the ragged edge of extinction in the ice age, but now serve to create problems.

   Perhaps we could also liken humans as cancer cells on the petri dish that is Earth.

   Extinction is a euphemism for extermination, considering how many and the manner in which members of many endangered species have met their fate and untimely end.

   More than 99% of all species that ever appear on Earth are already extinct since life began.

   The average lifespan of a species is one million years. The human species (counting the early hominids) has lasted six million years. Extinction is the rule; survival is the exception.

   Even if humanity were to survive and later conquer other planets, there will be no guarantee that humanity will not repeat its mistakes and export its problems to other extra-terrestrial worlds.

   As you probably already know, we are already in the midst of the Sixth Great Extinction. If you are interested, the main issue is twofold: speciesism and anthropocentricism. Until we critically deal with the main issue, even environmentalism in all its diversity may not suffice to turn things around, as discussed in my multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary post entitled “SoundEagle in Debating Animal Artistry and Musicality“.

   Being simultaneously witty and serious about a number of outstanding issues, the said post actually ventures far beyond whatever its title may suggest or mean to any reader, especially in the very long “Conclusions” section. Please note the ISEA Model that I have devised to analyse and describe the Instrumental, Spiritual, Pro-Environment and Pro-Animal/Plant perspectives.

   May you find 2021 and the rest of the year very much to your liking and highly conducive to your writing, thinking and blogging!

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   • ecoquant says:

     29 May 2021 at 11:29

     Thank you for your comment, SoundEagle.

     Arrogance, echoes of colonialism, technocracy, elitism, yes, these are all Elon Musk. But, as well, Mr Musk represents competence, achievement, and just plain Getting Things Done, as well as an appreciation for what climate disruption is going to mean, the necessity to stop it, and appreciating and having the means to fix it.

     People, including and I’d say especially, the environmental activist community have had 50 years to try to fix this problem. It’s pretty clear whatever they are doing, whatever they are selling is not working. They may be philosophically and morally pure, but solving climate disruption is going to take a great deal more than personal purity.

     And the democratic political system liberals have applauded and supported has gotten itself mired in a divisive conflict. I think that may not be all their fault, as I think, frankly, that the United States Constitution — and perhaps constitutions of some other representative democracies (but not all) — is incapable of solving this problem at this scale.

     If people understand the need for stopping climate and environmental disruption, but then go ahead acting as if they are climate deniers, or, worse, fail to learn basic management skills that when something urgent needs to be done, you cannot fix everything and trying to do so means you’ll fix nothing, then environmental and climate liberals and activists are no better than the deniers of the Koch enterprise.

     Perhaps there may have been a way of doing this more softly in a politics other than the U.S. Constitution, but whether intrinsically or for reasons of contingency, it did not happen.

     Accordingly, this is why the ecomodernist approach, and the technocratic, corporate approach is our only way out now. It is the only way to get around and over people saying “Oh, I support solar, just not here, near our favorite suburban woods where I take walks.” Even some of the forest scientists that advise people like the Cape Cod Climate Collaborative don’t know soil science or biogeochemistry of it, or of forest Carbon Cycles, and think there are Magic Beans which will fix CO2 “naturally”. The science is done and, while, protecting forests and some afforestation can help, it don’t do enough if we don’t stop emitting massively and suddenly. The people who argue for forests over all having done the Carbon accounting.

     Sure, to do this correctly will result in big economic disruptions, probably job losses, probably economic hurts. But if you listen to John Kerry and Biden and Gina McCarthy, they are betting on Magic Beans, moving Greta Thunberg to urge reaching out to Harry Potter, Gandalf, and others for technical help.

     So, unless personal purity is the highest end — and I think that is both hugely selfish and supremacist — Mr Musk’s way and Mr Brand’s are the only way left. Sorry if that makes people uncomfortable. But we’ve boxed ourselves collectively into this corner. There are not other ways out.

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     • SoundEagle 🦅ೋღஜஇ says:

       29 May 2021 at 15:51

       Dear Jan Galkowski,

       Thank you for your very thoughtful and considered reply. The said post entitled “SoundEagle in Debating Animal Artistry and Musicality” is available at https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2013/07/13/soundeagle-in-debating-animal-artistry-and-musicality/#top

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     • SoundEagle 🦅ೋღஜஇ says:

       29 May 2021 at 16:08

       Dear Jan Galkowski,

       Hello! I am inclined to concur with you that there seems to be little or no other viable options left. We have quite a lot in common in our concerns and the issues that we raised.

       Needless to say, due to misinformation and disinformation, 2020 had been a difficult year, not to mention having to deal with the pandemic. It was all quite surreal, perhaps in some ways more bizarre than ghosts and the paranormal (not that I believe in such things). One could say that we live in interesting times indeed, but often for the wrong reasons. I have had to coin a new term: Viral Falsity.

       It is going to be a very tall order for the Biden presidency (or any presidency for that matter) to turn things around. It would have been much easier if some Republican senators had been far more honest and incorruptible, for they have been very greedy, uninspired, cowardly and lack criminal, moral and political accountabilities. It is all quite a big mess in danger of getting bigger still.

       2021 is nearly half gone and the GOP is still on trial and has fared no better and seems to be getting (much) worse.

       Consequently, any reasonable person can conclude that the USA has been plagued by ignorance, dogma, falsity, blind faith, spiritual stagnation and epistemological impasse . . . . .

       Whilst some of us may take some comfort in our living somewhere else, there is the danger that oppressive politics may spread elsewhere or be mirrored by other corrupt politicians outside their origins. Democracy is not a given. It can be quite fragile, can fail rather badly, and often is approximately as good and benevolent (or bad and malevolent) as the members who practise, control and/or legislate it. We all need to do our parts in contributing to the smooth and equitable functioning of a civil country and democratic society. I have done mine in highlighting many of the most fundamental causes of the most pressing social ills and civic matters through my writings, and I hope that I have indeed shed very good light on these thorny issues in my latest and much expanded post entitled “Misquotation Pandemic and Disinformation Polemic: Mind Pollution by Viral Falsity“.

       In the concluding section called “Denouement : Democracy, Education, Legislation & Sustainability” of the said post, I would like to quote one of my own paragraphs here as follows:

       In conclusion, as a flawed species causing and worsening (the existential risk of global catastrophe through) the information ecosystem pollution, the world ecological crisis and the sixth mass extinction, it is high time that human beings face the noise and music of the Misquotation Pandemic and Disinformation Polemic causing Mind Pollution by Viral Falsity, so that we may sort ourselves out in the larger scheme of things, and in the natural order. Humankind, the ultimate but flawed being as a whole and on the whole must share the burden and guilt for continually manifesting and festering such predicaments, whose sobering ramifications as well as involute corollaries represent indubitable indicators and fair warnings that humanity as a major force of Nature in the new but brief Anthropocene epoch has indeed lost its sense of proportion and its grasp on perspective to the point of accelerating its own terminal downfall and existential oblivion. We ought to be consistently reminding ourselves that the pale blue dot is being rendered growingly inhospitable by anthropogenic forces, a multitude of which have been intensified as much by human ingenuity and consumption as by human failings, foibles and follies rooted in self-interest, irresponsibility, irrationalities, oversights, prejudices, misbeliefs, misjudgements, misrepresentations and (eco)systemic injustices. It is glaringly clear beyond any shadow of reasonable doubt that if we are indeed interested and invested in having a decent chance of long-term survival, then we must strive towards achieving and instituting acceptable degrees of democratic freedom to be exercised in civil societies free of Mind Pollution by Viral Falsity, which is eminently capable of disrupting or damaging equitable access to and responsible distribution of reliable information, social capital, renewable resources and sustainable lifestyles enjoyable by all and sundry on this finite Earth. In spearheading, renewing or enlarging civic participation, community development and governmental engagement for a better planet, the essential objective or existential directive for improving the long-term survival probability of humanity must be based on critical policies and cooperative principles that value individual life and liberty whilst ensuring that liberty is always predicated on responsibility at all levels and manners of living, for liberty without responsibility is necessarily self-terminating, given that there are fundamental limits and boundaries that must be respected if we are to survive collectively as individuals, cultures, societies and ecologies facing a looming global ecological crisis that will dwarf the pandemic calamity and infodemic falsity.

       This post of mine contains twelve sections (plus a detailed annotated gallery), all of which are instantly accessible from a navigational menu. I suspect that you may have a lot to express about this particular post regarding the increasingly pressing issues that many of us are facing, worsened all the more by anti-intellectualism, fundamentalism, dogma, ideology, herd mentality, political expediency, corporate interests and the politicization of science, in conjunction with outstanding matters pertaining to mental pitfalls (or even mental health), social media, digital globalization, populism, illiberal democracy, and other behavioural and sociopolitical factors. You can access the post by clicking the featured post in the Home page of my blog.

       In addition, I would like to inform you that for best viewing, use a desktop or laptop computer with a large screen to view the rich multimedia contents available for heightening your multisensory enjoyment at my blog, which could be too powerful and feature-rich for iPad, iPhone, tablet or other portable devices to handle properly or adequately.

       May you find the rest of 2021 very much to your liking and highly conducive to your writing, reading, thinking and blogging whatever topics that take your intellectual fancy!

       Yours sincerely,
       SoundEagle

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