The world is not in decline. We do not live on a "spaceship earth" because of the potential for astroid/moon mining and space based solar panels. Technological progress continues to outstrip our environmental damage done in it's persuit, and ultimately only technological solutions will get us out of the current issues with climate change. That, and a healthy amount of climate adaptation.
Apocalyptic rhtoric is both wrong and a mind virus that cripples meaningful policy discussions.
I have my problems with Steven Pinker but this is one issue where he is so correct on it's not even funny.
> Technological progress continues to outstrip our environmental damage done in it's persuit, and ultimately only technological solutions will get us out of the current issues with climate change.
You've got your causal arrows backwards. Technological progress is fueled by environmental destruction and our use of fossil fuels. I recommend Smil's Energy and Civilization as a relatively neural view on the relationship between our energy usage and civilizational progress.
I understand where the mass denial comes from, recognizing the current state of collapse we are in uproot many of the essential structure of meaning we use to survive so our minds won't trivially let us see them.
Still it is ultimately healthier for everyone to come to grips with this rather than struggle through more and more aggressive and cognitively dissonant forms of denial.
> Technological progress continues to outstrip our environmental damage done in it's persuit, and ultimately only technological solutions will get us out of the current issues with climate change
I think that, increasingly, people disagree with this, but it is still a minority opinion.
Apocalyptic rhtoric is both wrong and a mind virus that cripples meaningful policy discussions.
I have my problems with Steven Pinker but this is one issue where he is so correct on it's not even funny.