{"id":2028,"date":"2014-05-16T15:34:08","date_gmt":"2014-05-16T15:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/archives\/2014\/05\/16\/for-kingsnorth-the-notion-that-technology-will\/"},"modified":"2015-04-25T18:23:19","modified_gmt":"2015-04-25T16:23:19","slug":"for-kingsnorth-the-notion-that-technology-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/archives\/2014\/05\/16\/for-kingsnorth-the-notion-that-technology-will\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

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For Kingsnorth, the notion that technology will stave off the most catastrophic effects of global warming is not just wrong, it\u2019s repellent \u2014 a distortion of the proper relationship between humans and the natural world and evidence that in the throes of crisis, many environmentalists have abandoned the principle that \u201cnature has some intrinsic, inherent value beyond the instrumental.\u201d If we lose sight of that ideal in the name of saving civilization, he argues, if we allow ourselves to erect wind farms on every mountain and solar arrays in every desert, we will be accepting a Faustian bargain.<\/p>\n

The core of the demonstrators\u2019 complaints was not that the new highways would worsen air pollution, cause car accidents or fracture communities; it was that some things, like wilderness and beauty, were \u2014 despite, or perhaps because of, their \u201cuselessness\u201d \u2014 more important than getting to work on time.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople think that abandoning belief in progress, abandoning the belief that if we try hard enough we can fix this mess, is a nihilistic position,\u201d Hine said. \u201cThey think we\u2019re saying: \u2018Screw it. Nothing matters.\u2019 But in fact all we\u2019re saying is: \u2018Let\u2019s not pretend we\u2019re not feeling despair. Let\u2019s sit with it for a while. Let\u2019s be honest with ourselves and with each other. And then as our eyes adjust to the darkness, what do we start to notice?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This was an intense read, but I\u2019m pretty sure anyone who has given some serious thought to climate change has at some points entertained some of these ideas. And between the lines, there are some interesting perspectives on instrumental rationality, playfulness and (dare I say it) mindfulness.<\/p>\n

(via It\u2019s the End of the World as We Know It \u2026 and He Feels Fine – NYTimes.com<\/a>)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Kingsnorth, the notion that technology will stave off the most catastrophic effects of global warming is not just wrong, it\u2019s repellent \u2014 a distortion of the proper relationship between humans and the natural world and evidence that in the throes of crisis, many environmentalists have abandoned the principle that \u201cnature has some intrinsic, inherent … Continue reading <\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[983],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tumblr"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2028"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2757,"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2028\/revisions\/2757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}