We live in perilous times.
The civil religion of progress is unravelling.
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| Our careless use of fossil fuels is changing the world's climate. |
History is peppered with apocalyptic predictions that
amounted to naught and to question someone’s religion is tantamount to
foolishness for even disconfirmation of the belief frequently only deepens
commitment.
Even though the collapse of progress is irrefutable, its
adherents believe with religious-like fervour and to question or doubt it
brings scorn and castigation driven by simmering anger, even a sense of insult.
Progress as presently known and understood became possible
when we stumbled upon ancient sunlight and in discovering how to release the abundant
energy stored in coal and oil, humanity’s trajectory changed, dramatically.
Progress of the past three centuries has been almost wholly
dependent upon on the fossil fuels earth has carefully put aside for millions
of years and after what is only a geological blink in time, we are scrapping
the bottom of the energy barrel.
Many believe contemporary progress, essentially that profit
and growth is infinite, but the finitude of our earth contradicts that and
rather than maintain our focus on the contemporary idea of progress, we need to
abandon the precepts to which we are addicted and re-invent the idea.
Progress should be about the broad betterment of the human
project, based on a sweeping and fresh understanding of what leads to human
happiness and flourishing; values, that when examined closely, are unrelated to
existing beliefs of progress.
Present progress is built on the energy of our rapidly
diminishing fossil fuels and because they have been used with such exuberance
and foolishness, we are facing unimaginable changes in the human condition,
complicated by equally unthinkable changes to the world’s weather system.
The garrulous among us praise the modern market system, but chief economist for the World Bank,
Nicholas Stern, has described climate
change as the greatest market failure in human history.
Rapid deterioration of our climate is a symbol of the
unravelling of the progress myth, but it is not alone for evidence of its
collapse can be seen in our refusal to acknowledge that we live in a finite
world and that we need a new way.
Our consumer-based lifestyle revolves around and depends
upon our continual gouging of finite resources; resources we need to husband rather
than wastefully use to pander to a lifestyle that will leave our children,
their children and those who follow with a world stripped of its essence.
Many believe technology will resolve emerging difficulties,
but nothing exists, is being developed or is even imagined that is able to fill
the void left by the seriously depleted fossil fuels.
Our devotion to progress and technology has removed the need
for innovation, severely limiting our chances of inventing a fresh and
resilient future.
