It always feels like a morality race to the bottom. Clearly i'm a pessimist here, but it's obvious in my pessimistic mindset. Do you have a more positive outlook perhaps?
At least capitalism is good at extracting value from the pillaging, unlike the alternatives.
But, in the end, pillaging is inevitable. Thermodynamically, "there's stuff already there, and all we have to do is get it" is the simple sugar of industry. You'll never find easier Calories. It's too sweet to resist. That's how you end up in oxymoronic schemes like "biomass" (cutting down forests) in the pursuit of renewable energy.
Well that's kind of the problem, it's really efficient at it and this efficiency is the root of the crisis we're in.
Definitely, but i didn't imply it was just capitalism.
If it is as dire as you portray, i guess my pessimism is correct. We're doomed and we'll all race to the finish line.
I'm thinking about the ancient Egyptians, Vikings, Huns, etc.
What's interesting is that societies are not bounded by destructive instincts: over time we've progressed a lot in limiting violence between humans. We will never reach a state with absolutely zero violence, but northern Europe or Canada shows that you can definitely reach levels that are incredibly low by human standards.
Now we need to do the same will pillaging and exploitation (of both nature and other humans).
Incredible to see how the nuclear bomb and welfare state were able to perform such an incredible feat.
I think there's a middle ground where you acknowledge there's a problem, try in some part to mitigate your contribution and build the world you want to be.
We don't have to be all-in on sweatshops and environmental destruction just because we in some part contribute to the problem as well.
More on point, it is absolutely critical that we self-regulate, because if we fail to do so, eventually, nature WILL regulate us into oblivion. Our existence depends on an insanely complex web of life. As with any robust network, many nodes and connections can be damaged and the system will still work. But keep damaging nodes and connections, and eventually, the system cannot recover — it will break down and may die off completely. When that happens, no human technology will save our species.
And the self-regulation is happening. We may very well be on a path where improving technology gets us through to a far less destructive life mode. More education, security, and rights causes birth rates to decline. Sustainable energy production is now cheaper than digging up fossil fuels, transporting them across the globe and lighting them on fire. Lighting is 10X more efficient, etc. etc. etc.. Intentional efforts to save species and ecosystems often see them recover faster than expected.
The only question is whether we have the luck and political will to make this transition happen fast enough to get to a sustainable energy & materials economy before a critical collapse.