The tragedy of our modern civilization is perhaps that our “progress” has been our undoing. What stuck out to me in the video was how our western culture has evolved in a way that we feel detached from nature, “after the industrial revolution, nature was converted to a resource.” Indeed, when bombarded with media and the stress of daily life it is easy to forget about the bigger picture and take our way of life for granted.
An analogy I had not heard before but that was quite poignant was about how our whole ecosystems are at the foundation powered by the sun and referred to all other resources we exploit as pockets of “ancient sunlight.” Accordingly, if we reverted to making use of only the sunlight we received per day, “the earth could sustain about half a billion people.”
Overpopulation seems to be a big factor in our overexploitation of resources. How we can counter this is unknown to me. What I do recognize is that “the economy is geared for growth,” and that includes people.
Perhaps under this economic system, which has become the greatest force behind all decisions we make as a species, it is impossible to see change occurring in time to counter the severe effects of global warming.
However it is clear that we must look at this problem with optimism; “we get to rethink everything we do.” Realistically it might take a miracle to overcome our environmental crisis, but who knows, the perpetual motion engine might be invented tomorrow! As an industrial designer we can exploit our technology and collective human expertise to strive for advancement in environmental sustainability. Many systems we utilise to do things are extremely detrimental to the environment, and at least we can improve upon these.
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