Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto
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‘Being Green’ is no longer enough. “Whole Planet Discipline” is Stewart Brand’s wake up call for the environmental movement, and his message is hard-arresting: unless environmentalists keep up with new science, they will become part of the problem. It is an exhilarating piece of writing and bang-on zeitgeist. Three profound transformations are underway on Planet: climate change, urbanization and biotechnology. In response to these seismic changes – and challenges – Steward Brand argues that the environmental movement must back some long-held opinions, and embrace tools and disciplines that it has traditionally distrusted – such as science and engineering – in order to forestall the cataclysmic wear of the planet’s resources. “Whole Planet Discipline” shatters a number of environmental myths, and presents radical, counterintuitive observations – cities are really greener than the countryside, nuclear power is the future of energy, and genetic engineering is the key to crop and land management. With a combination of scientific rigor and blazing promotion, Brand shows us exactly where the sources of our dilemmas lie and offers a bold and creative set of policies and solutions for producing a more sustainable society.
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On the whole (no pun proposed), the systemic change that is required for long-term quality of life barely gets addressed in this book. As Dianne Dumanoski states in The End of the Long Summer: Why We Must Re-establish Our Civilization to Survive on a Volatile Planet, “Equipment may allow us to avoid for a while longer the hard systemic questions about how to live productively within the imperatives of a restricted Planet, but this avoidance leaves persons who will finally confront this challenge with ever aggravation options.” It should be noted, but, that Stewart Brand has probably outlined the most likely course of action that humanity will take over the next few years — the mostly positive result by additional reviewers serves as validation of this prediction.
I have in the past mistakenly seen the Bay Area elites as a group that could be roused to lead the way toward systemic change. Time has proven that this group is much too enamored — indoctrinated? — with equipment, venture capital, and hosting conferences to pursue the “hard systemic questions.” For persons who are interested in how we got to this point of seriously considering massive “ecosystem engineering”, I would recommend One-Trick Ponies and The Institution.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
This is an brilliant book by an ardent environmentalist that tacks against the cant and shibboleths of the environmental movement. On the theme of energy production he argues persuasively that nuclear is most green of existing technologies. I was a bit surprised, but, that he didn’t even mention Ray Kurzweil’s contention that the efficiency of solar cells is following a version of Moore’s Law, doubling in efficiency every couple of years. Which, if right, will rapidly make this problem go away, albeit in twenty or thirty years. This is not to take anything away from Brand’s analysis, but it’s a surprising oversight agreed the width of his perspective and depth of his citations.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
Stewart’s book is fantastic, but there is even better news that his readers, of all people, will appreciate. I’m going to quote briefly from the scientific paper “Commercializable Power Source from Forming New States of Hydrogen” establish on the the website of BlacklightPower (.com) which was published in an updated form in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Vol. 34, Issue 2 (Jan 2009).
The paper resulted from work done by BLP principals and researchers at Rowan University in New Jersey. The founder of BLP developed a novel way of unifying some basic physics principles and his framework suggests many verifiable predictions which are being rapidly confirmed across multiple disciplines, which at least suggest that his framework of theories is worthy of further intensive examination. One implication is that hydrogen atoms can transition to an energy state lower than what our current theories predict/expect, and in so doing relief considerable energy… not by fusion but by changing into a form that may be the right explanation behind the “dark matter” that cosmologists have been speculating about to clarify certain anomalies of gravity and mass in the universe.
I quote: “Conclusion: In this study we made point theoretical predictions and tested them with standard, easily interpretable experiments. The results of spectroscopic, compound, and thermal data show that new energy states of hydrogen are formed by the result of H with catalysts such as Li and NaH… It is a new energy source ready for commercialization… Based on the volume of the catalyst and hydrogen fuel, the power density is among the highest known, (comparable to or privileged than that of internal combustion), and the energy balance is greater than that of any known material on a weight or molar basis. Consequently, the mass balance and cost per unit energy is projected to be MUCH LOWER THAN BURNING FOSSIL FUELS. Furthermore, the process is NONPOLLUTING. …the predictable (half Billion $ per electric generating plant per year) fossil fuel cost and the environmental impact to the air, water, and ground of producing, handling, and using fossil fuels may be eliminated. Similarly, the radioactive waste from nuclear plants, their tremendous infrastructure costs, and security and manufacturing accident risks may also be avoided.”
Read that three times at least! If you are even remotely concerned about the environment, the crazy wars we are pursuing to satisfy our oil needs, and particularly the approaching Hubbert Curve “Peak Oil” and the ever increasing energy-cost of producing energy, you need to get educated about BLP. The world wide Hubbert Curve is flashing a stark and ominous warning that if something doesn’t change, we are looking at a ride down some very Malthusian rapids of conflict and suffering as the carrying capacity of the planet closes in on us. All our wonderful systems of food production, transportation, and home heating and cooling will quickly founder and there will be misery you can’t imagine. If you follow James Kunstler you know what I’m talking about, allowing that he may be too pessimistic. The financial implosion in 2007/2008 and our ongoing super recession are just the bell ringing, warning us about the looming conventional energy crisis.
While some may nearly wish we could get that behind us and return to a much cut-rate population and impact on the planet, wouldn’t it be better to take Stewart Brand’s exhortation to heart, but apply it with tools that are much better than nuclear, wind, solar, and the rest? That is really the opportunity that may be standing at the threshold here. But it requires some significant paradigm changes in science and politics and it will take a lot of hard work to see that through quick enough to avoid a huge crash of our civilization, or the replacement of the fossil fuels infrastructure with something only slightly less noxious. The powers that be are still playing shell games like “hydrogen fuel cells”, which are just a less well-organized but slightly cleaner way of using our depleting hydrocarbons (you burn them to generate electricity to generate hydrogen – net energy loss overall).
If you know this development, you will realize that we can lower CO2 emissions more dramatically with this than any additional way, while avoiding the “but you had your chance to grow dirty” debate with China and India et. al. and all the weird politics of carbon credits, spent nuclear waste disposal and weaponization concerns, and so on. We’ve already burned through over half the recoverable oil anyway, so the hurt if it really is hurt is at least half done… this novel power generation process will quickly slow the rate of CO2 level increases and give scenery a fighting chance to sequester it back into the biosphere over time.
Another thing to keep an eye on is the ORBO equipment from the Irish firm Steorn, but that’s another similar tale I won’t belabor here.
Brand’s book speaks to a set of values that would improve the sustainability profile of modern civilization, but the emerging new energy paradigm (based on a fundamental shifts in physics shiny broken symmetry and the arresting new perspective of Dr. Randell Mills) could make his vision much simpler to achieve.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
I want to take sharp issue with the weird review published above from “Publisher’s Weekly”. I cannot judge they read the same book, because they are 180 degrees off target. There is absolutely nothing “clumsy” about it’s organization, it’s riveting and a joy to read. The designated Founder of the Green movement is relaying a series of revelatory developments occuring in the 40 years since he ongoing, and he has the integrity to reassess many of his original precepts in that light. He moves straight through the list, readjusting their weight to the GW question, then offers insight and concepts for action. How else should the book be ordered? The reviewer also completely missed his obervation that the movement will possibly be split (hopefully quietly) into Ancient and New initiatives. What were they smoking?
Along with Goleman’s “Ecological Intelligence”, this is the most vital book of the new decade to anyone concerned with the planet. Consider who is language, and with what experience, and it must be taken seriously.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
Stewart Brand brought the world the whole planet review, for which this avid reader was eternally thankful. It had the eclectic, trans-disciplinary, holistic view of the world, with fascinating articles that probed and rooted around the nested scales of complexity that streamed into one another through feedback dynamics. I looked forwards to each issue, no matter how much I disagreed with one or some of the contrarian writers’ viewpoints. So, it is with much sadness that I see Stewart fall way fleeting of what one would expect from such a curious mind in his new book Whole Planet Discipline. Where’s the discipline? Where’s the pragmatism? The book is loaded for bear,doused with ad hominems, full of inflammatory opinions either unencumbered by facts or so distorting and blatantly incorrect that it casts the entire book into question — even persons few chapters that I establish insightful. Ironically, the most untrustworthy chapter is Brand’s invidious distortion and (deliberate?) misunderstanding of wind and solar energy. His opinion are blatantly incorrect and painfully out-of-date, ignoring an immense literature of empirical experience and accumulated evidence; while his facile fascination and over-the-top effusiveness for nuclear power is buttressed by biases and logical fallacies, shorn of any substantive discussion of the very real challenges that continue to make nuclear power so controversial and questionable. For one of the most piercing critiques of Brand’s energy understanding see Amory Lovins review, “Stewart Brand’s nuclear enthusiasm falls fleeting on facts and logic” at ([...]), as well as the more detailed technical paper, The Nuclear Illusion ([...]).
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5