We developed the means to extract the fossil fuels from the crustal store and use them to provide energy that drives civilization. They also produce the material wastes that have initiated climate change. The production of these wastes has been the unintended consequence of our exuberant use of this component of natural capital. We have unintentionally let loose a vast natural force that has done irreversible damage to our environment. We have let the genie out of the bottle. We do not have the means to harness natural forces to prevent the consequential climate change. Re-forestation and other measures will help amelioration a little. We cannot reduce the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and in the oceans. We cannot put the genie back in the bottle.
The range of proposals to reduce the rate of emission of greenhouse gases by decreasing fossil fuel usage will, at best, slow down climate change. It will not stop the melting of the Greenland glaciers or the Antarctic ice shelves. It will not stop the development of the extremes of weather that are now starting to hit hard globally. The people of Victoria have to be prepared for more devastating bush fires. Other communities will have to adapt to increasing flooding. Many Pacific Island communities will have to adapt to rising sea levels even as the fisheries decline due to the acidification of the oceans. Global food production will decline even as the population continues to increase so billions will suffer from malnutrition and lack of potable water.
The most difficult task as the global financial scene collapses and the ecological disasters grow is to understand what we have done wrong. We have to learn that all our operations dependent on using up natural goods and services. Monetary wealth will continue to be a delsion even as our operations cause ecocide. Our leaders will have to accept that economic growth is over and economic contraction is the new Great Game. The major task is to change the attitude of people. They have to learn that society cannot subdue, conquer or subjugate nature. And it can only temporarily dominate and exploit nature. Thus, domination and exploitation are not sustainable. Materialistic civilization is on its way out. Its destiny is ordained by the laws of nature rather than by the desires of humans. What can we do to ease the powering down? That is the challenge to be faced.
