i've been seeing more techno-solutionist talk online lately. maybe it's just my algorithms that decided to show me more of that or maybe people are actually talking more about it. either way, it made me think about this subject and it's implications, and also made me quite scared.
when i talk about techno-solutionism in this post, i mean it in relation towards climate change. here's a definition to make sure we're all thinking about the same thing when reading this article.
techno-solutionism is the idea that we will fix the climate crisis by using technology so we don't have to change our way of life.
now let me preface by saying that i personally don't believe in techno-solutionism and i will develop why in this post. but even if you believe in it, i think you should read-on as my goal is not to judge or critisize but rather to ask questions and i think your answers would be as interesting as anyone else's.
the solutions that are often brought up in techno-solutionist discussions are carbon capture, agi that will find the solutions for us, geoengineering and nuclear fusion.
as of now, none of these solutions are a reality. we are seeing progress in each of them, but they still pose many challenges that we are yet so solve.
the question then is, do we want to bet on things that we don't know for sure will ever become a reality?
because, you might strongly believe these will someday exist but you can't prove that they will. it's just a belief.
personally, i don't want to throw the life of future generations of living beings to a bet.
now, let's say this works and we actually figure these things out! what tells us that we'll figure them out in time?
because while we are working on these solutions, the climate crisis is still going on. living beings are quickly dying and becoming extinct, and even if you don't care about non-human forms of life, humans are dying too.
are we as a species really willing to let so many other forms of life die for us to keep up with our current way of life?
are we, the people living in privileged countries willing to keep exploiting other humans for our on profit and well being?
and can we really feel well and happy about how we'll live in a world where we have "fixed" the climate crisis but can still feel all the damages it caused?
maybe your answer to all of these is yes, and maybe you'd even tell me that it's also possible that we will figure techno-solutions in time.
so let's say you are right about this, let's say that by 2050, we've found solutions that allow us to go to negative carbon emissions!
then the question is, are you willing to let companies decide of the quality of the air you breathe?
because since we live in a capitalist society, the companies running carbon capture machines and doing the geoengineering required to keep our current living standards will want to make profit.
they won't do it for the sake of being nice to us, when is the last time you've seen a company just trying to be nice and profit off of it?
now you could argue that we are already trusting companies for many really important things like electricity or transport of goods. but these aren't vital things.
people used to live without electricity and they would grow their own food, but no one would be able to live without breathable air.
my personal opinion on this is that i am definitely not ok with putting my survival and the survival of future generations in the hands of any company. and don't get me wrong, i would love to keep up the life that i currently have, it's so comfortable. and i so wish that every human going forward would have the same comfort of life that i have. but i simply don't think it is possible.
maybe you are ok with the idea that only a few living beings will have a great life at the cost of all others, in which case, business as usual is perfectly fine. but i am not.
i believe that it is more than overdue that we start rethinking our future.
i don't want of a future where machines are what is keeping us alive like we are some sort of ill person surviving only because of their ventilator.
let's use what we know and are sure of to build a new collective imagination. a world where yes, we will have lost a lot of our current comfort at the benefit of more equality, more mutual aid, more connexion to nature and each other, more time to think and dream.
a world where we can wake up every day without being stressed by an imminent wall that we seem to being sprinting towards at great speeds.
sure, we won't be able to eat mcdonalds, order stuff from the other side of the world for only a couple bucks and get it delivered the same day, drive a car to go buy food at the big nearby mall, travel for a few hundred euros/dollars to go virtually anywhere in at most 2 days, change phone as we please, etc
but isn't that worth it for the certainty that we and other livings, will be able to live for millennia to come?
we should stop being trapped in our current vision of the world and i'm hopeful that someday we'll look back on this time period like we are looking back on how they lived in the middle ages.
i would love to hear about you opinion on this subject, even if you disagree. so please feel free to send me a mail so we can discuss this matter further.
have a nice day :))