The first point made in the authors note is that "we know astonishingly little about every aspect of the environment, from its past history, to its present state, to how to conserve and protect. In every debate, all sides over-state the extent of existing knowledge and its degree of certainty," p715. This point seemed to carry over in much of the other points made, or that the things we do know may not support the conclusions we are drawing about our environment. As I read this novel, I can't help but feel an undertone that we can't really solve this problem.
As I was reading through some of the previous postings, I read several from my working group and I have to jump on to what they are saying. The green revolution is advertising all of these things that we can do to save the environment but what will they really do? Can we reverse the damage done or slow it by simply using reusable bags? Or eating organically? What we know is the damage we've done, what we don't know is how to fix that. I feel like the environmentalists are trying to come up with answers based on their "over-statement of existing knowledge" in order to make US feel better.
I have done extensive research on the green revolution for our background report and I found a lot of information that states the most rewarding benefit of jumping on the "going green" bandwagon is it will make you feel good and I really think that's all there is to it. We feel good because we think we are doing good.
I couldn't agree more with your post. Reading through the book it feels as though Crichton is working with the idea how do we know we can change or reverse the damage we have already done. Because for many of our resources once they are gone they are gone. What we can do to change this is very little in comparison to the size of Earth and the years of ignoring this developing problem. But at the end of the day even if the little things we did to help the environment didn't do much, it will make us feel better that we remembered to turn off the kitchen light before we left, and recycled that water bottle that we used to simply throw out in the trash. who knows, maybe we will find out in the future that these piddly things we are beginning to get in the habit of doing will help an unknown problem down the road.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to get two things separated in my mind, and almost have it: (1) do we 'know' significant, solid things about the environment and its history and mechanisms? Yep, we do. Crichton is either wrong or trivially right when he says how little we know. We know lot (of course, there's always huge amounts to learn....). It's not a big unknown. BUT (2) can we 'fix' it? Here, I'm with him as regards the complexity of the problem. But do remember 'type 2 problems': do nothing and get handed your ass.....
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