The lens through which I see climate change solutions is somewhat of a hybrid of Parker & Blodgett’s three. Although I see the situation largely through the ecological lens, I feel that the other two lenses represent the flaws in our appreciation of the environment. All three lenses provide integral parts of the ultimate comprehensive solution, a solution which needs to be employed now. However, there are institutional and societal barriers to the change that needs to take place.
First, our society lacks a comprehensive environmental ethic which is in large part responsible for the environmental degradation that has for so long been permitted to take place. Our modern society has removed people so far from nature, many people don’t know the wonders of the environment because they are stuck in the city and have never gone on a nature hike or been in the woods. Because people are distanced from nature, the meaning of nature starts to diminish. Although it seems strange to me, governments legislate a type of environmental ethic. Since our society has deviated so far from a healthy relationship with the Earth, however, legislation and education is one of our last options.
In my opinion, the technological and economic lenses would not be necessary if there were a solidly established environmental ethic in capitalist culture. The fact that goods are not appropriately priced to encompass environmental damage is not a problem in itself: it is intrinsically linked to society’s disinterest in the environment. If there were a concern about the environment, goods would have been appropriately priced to reflect the environmental damage they caused. Technologies would not be invented if they were harmful to the environment, if the builders were concerned with the health of the environment or they would have been immediately corrected. Our lack of ethical concern with polluting the environment has now translated into this global problem.
Like the book Breakthrough states, it is important to develop new ideas and solutions because climate change is a new problem. It encourages the reader to think outside of the box because every-day, already existing technologies and methods may not work when confronting a problem as global as our warming environment.
Breakthrough Institute website: http://www.thebreakthrough.org
