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Engineering the Planet
What Compels us to do so?
Consumption is Good?
 This depends entirely on where you are in
history.
 Does history have a moral obligation to
preserve itself?
 Is the highest form of enlightenment really
consumerism?
 Is the increase in global inequity worth the
price of consumption?
Critical Question
 Can This Century also stand a 4-fold
increase in world population (from 6 to 24
billion)
 Remember, consumption is good so why not
stay the course?
 Will the emerging world market of China
promote this kind of growth in the same way
the industrial revolution did?
A Century of Change
(1900 (=1) vs. 2000)
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Industrial Output: 40 (Newtonian footprint)
Marine Fish Catch: 35
CO2 Emissions: 17
Total Energy Use: 16
Coal Production: 7
World Population: 4
Forest Area: 0.8
Probable Climate Change as our Legacy of
Consumption
Science, Technology, Humanity
 We are special (different than other animals)
 We are uniquely positioned at the center of
the Universe (reflects our “specialness”)
 The Universe is ordered, logical and rational
 With the application of Reason, humankind
is unbounded
 The Newtonian world shows us the machine
and it is precise
Continued
 Life is a struggle; competition is natural;
gradual change occurs (Darwin)
 Science now certifies  Survival of the
fittest and the engineering of society to
protect that outcome (Spencer)
 The notion of uncertainty, as a valid
scientific concept, arises too late in this
process
Example of the Malthusian
Footprint

Human activities/growth obliterate
equilibrium time scales: for instance, the
current excess injection of CO2 into the
atmosphere is 26% of the equilibrium rate
A HUGE PERTURBATION
Our Current Situation
 Lack of complete physical understanding that
the Earth is a connected system.
 Inability to enact long term proactive
strategies and decision making
 Inability to deal with data ambiguity and
complexity– we want an expert to tell us so
 We don’t respond unless there is a
Fundamental Reason
• No Wisdom has yet been applied to
planetary management
• Whose to blame for this?
Every One of Us
Certainty
GOD
HUMANS
Entitlement
HUMANS
Aarogance
NATURE
Wisdom
Super
Nova
TREES
Connectivity
Of Atoms
ROCKS
Enlightenment
Humility
TREES
ROCKS
Disconnected States
Everything Is Connected to
Everything