Musings on science, religion, and us - By Robb

I was listening to a lecture/conversation between Wes Jackson of the Land Institute and Wendell Berry this morning and the topic wandered to science and it's mandate. To paraphrase, science doesn't decide what's good, culture does that, within culture religion has largely had a monopoly on that word, that task, that responsibility. How has good come to mean allowing massive corporations to enrich shareholders at the expense of diversity, both cultural and ecological, to control our media and our governments, the very food we eat? Is this what religion has defined as good? How has it become good to siphon off the riches, the potential of a nation, to bailout, prop up a failed system of debt dependent on unlimited growth, a literal physical impossibility, to the tune of 700 billion dollars? How has it become good to hand that wealth to very people who created the mess in the first place? The fox is in the hen house, the fox owns the hen house.

Meanwhile back at the ranch.

While we are busy crafting corporate welfare the planet gets hotter, while we let the rich scarper off with their ill gotten gains we ignore the looming scientific warnings. I can't help it, the science just keeps getting scarier!

I never liked horror movies as a kid, they gave me nightmares, but I've always liked apocalyptic science fiction. Well science fact is getting more and more apocalyptic and I can't seem to stop keeping up with it. Maybe it is my deepest held conviction that humans are just animals after all, nothing special about us. In fact, with all our supposed intelligence we are the only animals that soil our our own nest, knowingly, willingly destroying the future of our progeny and the progeny of all the other species we share this gift of a globe with. If anything, this proves to me that we are the least of species not the best. I do hope that someday I'm proven wrong about this, if there is one thing that can make us stand out in a positive way it will be a decision to make the necessary changes to create a sustainable and just lifestyle for all species on this earth.

We do have the capability, we do have the technology, we do have the resources. Without a new definition of the good we don't have a chance.

New science as found at Organic Consumers Association;
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_14872.cfm

A brief aside - by Robb

When I've had all the research, writing, and listening about sustainability I can stand I go for a walk. I put my iPod, purchased used, in my pocket and listen to some great science fiction. My podcast of choice is Escape Pod, well written and read science fiction with very thoughtful and thought provoking commentary. I highly recommend it

http://escapepod.org/

Science fiction is related my interest in sustainability because I find it an expression of the possible. The two interests intersect because quite often science fiction is set in some possible future, one where humans have risen above, or haven't, the challenges we face. This can be very reassuring, whether to my hope that we are capable of rising above or to my belief that the challenges are almost insurmountable.
I don't seem to be the only one who feels this way. Check this out

http://www.grist.org/feature/2008/02/21/bacigalupi/index.html

A very interesting interview about the intersection of environmentalism and science fiction.