Whole Earth Discipline

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Whole Earth Discipline
Whole Earth Discipline-cover.png
Author Stewart Brand
Original titleWhole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto
Publisher Viking Penguin
Publication date
2009
ISBN 978-0-670-02121-5

Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto is the sixth book by Stewart Brand, published by Viking Penguin in 2009. [1] He sees Earth and people propelled by three transformations: climate change (global warming), urbanization and biotechnology. [2] Brand tackles "touchy issues" like nuclear power, genetic engineering and geoengineering, "fully aware that many of the environmentalist readers he hopes to reach will start out disagreeing with him". [3]

Contents

Overview

Brand said in an interview with Seed magazine, "...I'd accumulated a set of contrarian views on some important environmental issues—specifically, cities, nuclear energy, genetic engineering, and geoengineering—and that it added up to a story worth telling." [4]

The author cites numerous other authors both in the recommended reading section [5] and in live lectures. [6] In particular, book influences are Constant Battles by Steven A. LeBlanc with Katherine Register, [7] Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, a New Urban World by Robert Neuwirth, [8] and James Lovelock, the author of The Revenge of Gaia and The Vanishing Face of Gaia. [9]

In an interview with American Public Media, Brand said, "...in [Whole Earth Catalog] I focused on individual empowerment, and in [Whole Earth Discipline] the focus is on the aggregate effects of humans on things like climate. And some of these issues are of such scale that you got to have the governments doing things like making carbon expensive. Or making coal expensive to burn and putting all that carbon into the atmosphere. And individuals can't do that, individual communities can't do that. It takes national governments." [10]

Synopsis

Speaking on "Rethinking Green", Brand provided a short version of his book: [11]

The book challenges traditional environmentalist thinking around four major issues:

He summarized the book as follows:

Urbanization, or the move to cities, requires grid electricity, which chapter one discusses, in particular nuclear power. Another two chapters explain the need for genetic engineering. The fourth chapter is a "sermon" on science and large-scale geoengineering. The fifth chapter tackles restoration of natural infrastructure and benevolent ecosystem engineering. Finally, Brand concludes with humans' obligation to "learn planet craft", to enhance life and Earth like an earthworm. [12]

Criticism

Amory Lovins published a critique at the Rocky Mountain Institute, [13] saying on NPR that nuclear energy is not the most cost-effective solution, that it is too expensive and slow to build. [14] Jim Riccio, a spokesman for Greenpeace speaking with Green Inc. of The New York Times , called Brand's arguments "nonsensical, especially concerning the abysmal economics of nuclear power." [15]

"(Environmentalists) are viewing what I'm saying more in sorrow than in anger," Brand told the Toronto Star . [16]

Online revision after publication

Brand maintains an online version of his book [17] where, as he says "the text (much of it) dwells in a living thicket of its origins and implications. Instead of static footnotes there are live links to my sources, including some better ones that turned up after the writing".

He also published an online "Afterword". [18] He asks: "What belongs in an afterword?" For one thing, he says: "history that has moved on from what I described in 2009 should be indicated" But his Afterword is also a place where he can record changes in his views: "I did promise in this book that I would change my mind as needed...."

Brand says his views on climate are influenced most by his old friend James Lovelock. [19] In the Afterword, Brand writes that Lovelock has "softened his sense of alarm about the pace of climate change". (Lovelock's position had been that planetary catastrophe was now unavoidable). [20] Brand explains that Lovelock changed his mind because of two things: he read a book, The Climate Caper, by Garth Paltridge, [21] and he read a paper by Dr. Kevin Trenberth, [22] which was published in Science. Brand quotes from an email he got from Lovelock: "Something unknown appears to be slowing down the rate of global warming"

Brand's current position on climate change is unclear. In a talk recorded in Vancouver, he told the audience "maybe nothing" will happen as a result of the accumulating greenhouse gases, although he said it would be "like playing Russian Roulette with five cylinders loaded, to not reduce emissions". [23]

Reviews

Publishers Weekly said, "Rejecting the inflexible message so common in the Green movement, he describes a process of reasonable debate and experimentation. Brand's fresh perspective, approachable writing style and manifest wisdom ultimately convince the reader that the future is not an abyss to be feared but an opportunity for innovative problem solvers to embrace enthusiastically." [24] Library Journal's verdict: "Despite the occasional flippant comment, Brand's tough but constructive projection of our near future on this overheating planet is essential reading for all." [25] One Energy Collective reviewer disagreed: "What's Brand doing telling people to pay attention to a second rate climate science denier like Paltridge? And that aging old friend of his who has so influenced him, Lovelock, he doesn't seem to understand what recent debate among leading climate scientists means." [26]

Related Research Articles

Environmentalist Someone who supports the goals of the environmental movement

An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities". An environmentalist is engaged in or believes in the philosophy of environmentalism or one of the related philosophies.

James Lovelock English scientist, environmentalist and futurist

James Ephraim Lovelock is a British independent scientist, environmentalist and futurist. He is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the Earth functions as a self-regulating system.

Amory Lovins American energy policy analyst

Amory Bloch Lovins is an American writer, physicist, and former chairman/chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has written on energy policy and related areas for four decades, and served on the US National Petroleum Council, an oil industry lobbying group, from 2011 to 2018.

Stewart Brand American writer

Stewart Brand is an American writer, best known as editor of the Whole Earth Catalog. He founded a number of organizations, including The WELL, the Global Business Network, and the Long Now Foundation. He is the author of several books, most recently Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto.

Energy development Diverse methods of energy production

Energy development is the field of activities focused on obtaining sources of energy from natural resources. These activities include production of renewable, nuclear, and fossil fuel derived sources of energy, and for the recovery and reuse of energy that would otherwise be wasted. Energy conservation and efficiency measures reduce the demand for energy development, and can have benefits to society with improvements to environmental issues.

Soft energy path Investment in renewables and efficiency

In 1976, energy policy analyst Amory Lovins coined the term soft energy path to describe an alternative future where energy efficiency and appropriate renewable energy sources steadily replace a centralized energy system based on fossil and nuclear fuels.

Climate engineering, or commonly geoengineering, is deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth's climate system. The main category of climate engineering is solar geoengineering or solar radiation management. Solar geoengineering, or solar radiation modification, would reflect some sunlight back to space to limit or reverse human-caused climate change.

Technogaianism Stance favoring technology development to fight climate change and existential threats

Technogaianism is a bright green environmentalist stance of active support for the research, development and use of emerging and future technologies to help restore Earth's environment. Technogaianists argue that developing safe, clean, alternative technology should be an important goal of environmentalists.

Mark Lynas British author and journalist (born 1973)

Mark Lynas is a British author and journalist whose work is focused on environmentalism and climate change. He is a contributor to New Statesman, The Ecologist, Granta and Geographical magazines, and The Guardian and The Observer newspapers in the UK; he also worked on the film The Age of Stupid. He was born in Fiji, grew up in Peru and the United Kingdom and holds a degree in history and politics from the University of Edinburgh. He has published several books including Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet (2007) and The God Species: Saving the Planet in the Age of Humans (2011). He has stated "I think there is a 50–50 chance we can avoid a devastating rise in global temperature." Lynas is a communications strategist and climate lead for the Alliance for Science at Cornell University as well as a fellow of the German skeptics organization, GWUP.

Hunter Lovins

L. Hunter Lovins is an American environmentalist, author, sustainable development proponent, co-founder of Rocky Mountain Institute, and president of the nonprofit organization Natural Capitalism Solutions.

Bright green environmentalism is an ideology based on the belief that the convergence of technological change and social innovation provides the most successful path to sustainable development.

<i>Brittle Power</i> Book by Amory and L. Hunter Lovins

Brittle Power: Energy Strategy for National Security is a 1982 book by Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins, prepared originally as a Pentagon study and re-released in 2001 following the September 11 attacks. The book argues that the U.S. domestic energy infrastructure is very vulnerable to disruption, whether by accident or malice, often even more so than US technology is vulnerable to disruption of the imported oil supply. According to the authors, a resilient energy system is feasible, costs less, works better, and is favoured in the market, but is rejected by U.S. policy. In the preface to the 2001 edition, Lovins explains that these themes are still very current.

Kenneth Caldeira is an American atmospheric scientist. His areas of research include ocean acidification, climate effects of trees, intentional climate modification, interactions in the global carbon cycle/climate system, and sustainable energy.

Mycle Schneider Nuclear energy consultant

Mycle Schneider is a Paris-based nuclear energy consultant and anti-nuclear activist. He is the lead author of The World Nuclear Industry Status Reports. He has advised members of the European Parliament on energy issues for more than twenty years. In 1997 he received the Right Livelihood Award.

Jeff Goodell

Jeff Goodell is an American author and contributing editor to Rolling Stone magazine. Goodell's writings are known for a focus on energy and environmental issues. He is Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council and a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow.

Solar geoengineering Reflection of sunlight to reduce global warming

Solar geoengineering, or solar radiation modification (SRM) is a proposed type of climate engineering in which sunlight would be reflected back to space to limit or reverse human-caused climate change. It is a possible quick emergency measure to limit overheating while greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere decay or are removed, not a substitute for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Most methods would increase the planetary albedo (reflectivity), for example with stratospheric aerosol injection. Although most techniques would have global effects, localized protective or restorative methods have also been proposed to protect natural heat reflectors including sea ice, snow, and glaciers.

Barry Brook (scientist)

Barry William Brook is an Australian scientist. He is an ARC Australian Laureate Professor and Chair of Environmental Sustainability at the University of Tasmania in the Faculty of Science, Engineering & Technology. He was formerly an ARC Future Fellow in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Adelaide, Australia, where he held the Sir Hubert Wilkins Chair of Climate Change from 2007 to 2014. He was also Director of Climate Science at the Environment Institute.

Pro-nuclear movement

There are large variations in people's understanding of the issues surrounding nuclear power, including the technology itself, climate change, and energy security. Proponents of nuclear energy contend that nuclear power is a sustainable energy source that reduces carbon emissions and increases energy security by decreasing dependence on imported energy sources. Opponents believe that nuclear power poses many threats to people and the environment. While nuclear power has historically been opposed by many environmentalist organisations, some support it, as do some scientists.

The Breakthrough Institute is an environmental research center located in Oakland, California. Founded in 2007 by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus. The Institute is aligned with ecomodernist philosophy. Such thought advocates for increased use of natural resources through an embrace of modernization, technological development, and increasing U.S. capital accumulation, usually through a combination of nuclear power and urbanization. Since its inception, many environmental scientists and academics outside of the institute have disagreed with Breakthrough's environmental positions.

Ecomodernism Environmental philosophy

Ecomodernism is an environmental philosophy which argues that humans should protect nature and improve human wellbeing by developing technologies that decouple human development from environmental impacts. It supports state action centered on technology development. It argues that intensification of human activities can reduce harmful human impacts on the natural world. Technologies commonly recommended by ecomodernists include precision agriculture, microbial fertilizers, synthetic meat, genetically modified foods, desalination and waste recycling, urbanization, carbon dioxide removal technologies, replacing carbon-intensive and low power-density energy sources with high power-density sources with lower environmental impacts.

References

  1. Brand, Stewart (2009). Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto. Viking Penguin. ISBN   978-0-670-02121-5.
  2. "Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto". Skeptics Society. 2009-10-27. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
  3. Morton, Oliver (October 2, 2009). "Must-reads for Copenhagen". Nature Publishing Group. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
  4. Montenegro, Maywa (September 3, 2009). "Author and environmental icon Stewart Brand on four green heresies, developing-world ingenuity, and the new face of environmentalism". Seed. Seed Media Group. Archived from the original on September 6, 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-02.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  5. Brand 2009, pp. 303–313
  6. Brand, Stewart (October 24, 2009). Lecture Series presented by KPMG - Whole Earth Discipline. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Perimeter Institute, Quantum to Cosmos (Q2C) Festival. Retrieved 2009-10-25.
  7. Brand 2009, p. 2
  8. Brand 2009, p. 37
  9. Brand 2009, p. 11
  10. Brand, Stewart and Ryssdal, Kai (October 26, 2009). Marketplace: A pragmatic response to climate change. American Public Media. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
  11. Brand, Stewart (October 10, 2009). Rethinking Green. The Long Now Foundation via ForaTV. Event occurs at 15:20. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
  12. Brand 2009, p. 23
  13. Lovins, Amory (October 13, 2009). "Four Nuclear Myths" (PDF). Rocky Mountain Institute. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
  14. Lovins, Amory (October 21, 2009). "Transcript: Brand vs. Lovins On Nuclear Power". On Point. Trustees of Boston University. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
  15. Witkin, Jim (October 23, 2009). "Of Climate Change and Nuclear Power". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
  16. Kelly, Cathal (October 10, 2009). "Why greens need to grow up if they want to save the planet". Toronto Star. Torstar. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
  17. Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto, online version Retrieved July 20, 2010. Archived September 24, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  18. Online Afterword to Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto. Retrieved July 20, 2010 Archived June 17, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  19. Radio Ecoshock interview with Stewart Brand Retrieved July 20, 2010.
  20. Enjoy life while you can Views of James Lovelock, The Guardian, March 1, 2008, Retrieved July 20, 2010.
  21. Paltridge, Garth The Climate Caper 2009
  22. Tracking Earth's Energy, Science "Perspectives" April 16, 2010 Retrieved July 20, 2010.
  23. Radio Ecoshock interview with Stewart Brand Retrieved July 20, 2010.
  24. "Nonfiction Reviews". Publishers Weekly. Reed Business Information, Reed Elsevier. August 24, 2009. Archived from the original on August 31, 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
  25. Conn, David R., Surrey P.L., B.C. (September 1, 2009). "Science & Technology". Library Journal. Reed Business Information.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  26. Lewis, David, November 10, 2010 Stewart Brand: Fearless Follower of Lovelock, not science review of Brand's online Afterword, The Energy Collective