A modern city like many others but theres one big difference its located in the middle of a desert in one Nine Hundred Fifty the population was barely One Hundred Thousand then the age of Air Conditioning gone the electricity to power this convenience was supplied by coal plants suddenly it became possible to live under the Blazing Sun The Population skyrocketed today phoenix is home to one point six million and is the fifth largest city in the United States thomas basso moved here more than twenty years ago. Despite the climate he can enjoy his hobby all year round golf One Hundred And Eighty Four golf courses have sprung up here in the desert and. I live in st louis at the time and every winter id put the clubs or couldnt play golf. The good things. Live in phoenix is that you can get up in the morning i got a day like today harry are in april and its sixty eight degrees sixty nine degrees fahrenheit you can come out and enjoy a beautiful round of golf in a beautiful breeze and you get your vitamin d. From the sun and so its is a very healthy active lifestyle. But behind phoenixs vergence golf courses and their year round immaculate greens theres another story in Arizona Average water consumption per resident is six hundred liters of water per day among the highest in the United States its the price of living in the desert. Agriculture is also thriving i mean the temperate climate and abundant Sunshine Crops are numerous and plentiful. But they need water some need lots of water. Cotton is farmed intensively in arizona its one of the most thirsty plants on the planet but water is scarce in the desert so it has to be sourced from elsewhere. Twenty years ago the countrys largest and most expensive Irrigation System was built here Five Hundred And Forty One kilometers of canals draw water directly from the Colorado River. But the supply is not inexhaustible. The Colorado River and the regions groundwater are not easily replenished. Phoenix recently experienced its worst drought in a thousand years. Rain was followed by every new dry spell Water Shortages could begin cramping residents lifestyle in less than a decade but among. Siddons there are no signs of panic. After
all a month can happen in a decade. Its. You have to let almost the problem be there and then mankind is very very innovative its very entrepreneurial it will solve the problem here we are in arizona where one state away california is in the way of the ocean the ocean has more water than all of mankind could ever use its got salt in it so at some price you can desalinate that water and you have fresh water. If we are willing in arizona potion only to pay for getting that water here and pay for the price of decelerating and then we can live here if not we need to choose to live someplace else. Is the solution really that simple desalinate sea water or relocate an entire city. Maybe the question we should be asking is a different one. What if our Energy Hungry lifestyle simply isnt compatible to living in a desert. Phoenix is emblematic of our Development Model the power of Fossil Fuels Coal Oil And Gas have emboldened us to believe we can find a solution to anything at any time without ever worrying about depleting our Natural Resources. For. The reason we use fossil fuels is not because were stupid the reason we use fossil fuels is not because we just want to destroy the environment and we have no idea about this the reason we use fossil fuels is because this energy has changed our
livelihoods in ways that we dont want to give up we love to travel we love the idea that we can do things without so much labor fossil fuel is whats made this possible the question is really to me its not how were going to give these things up or rather how were going to change our societies and our Energy Systems to make it possible for us to live on earth without changing the climate i think its definitely possible but that the reasons that its so hard to change is because actually were quite fond of the way we change the earth. Behind a fear of change is a fear of loss. Societies today are not the first in history to opt for standstill rather than change. The story of phoenix bears a remarkable similarity to the viking conquests. When the vikings landed in greenland more than a thousand years ago the climate was very mild the first settlers believed in the
promise of a green fertile land. They lived according to the same social model that allowed them to rule over northern europe. Soon trade between greenland and the mainland was thriving. For two centuries the norse colonies flourished. And. Yet life in greenland was challenging to adapt the vikings turned to Sheep Farming which was more resilient against weather changes but which weve the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the climate underwent a radical change. Ships became trapped in ice it became increasingly difficult to sail to homelands in europe to restock supplies. With time the farmers tried to switch to hunting with little success. Farming trade religion
unsuited to this harsh environment the pillars of Viking Society felt one after another. Many fled the island. Those who stayed tried to adopt the customs of the innuit whose way of life was perfectly suited to this kingdom of ice but the vikings found it impossible to completely revamp their culture their beliefs their way of life everything was too far removed from the innuit. By the end of the fifteenth century nor society had completely vanished from greenland. As for the innuit they still and have it the island today. Will the residents of phoenix be forced to one day abandon the desert like the vikings were forced to leave greenland and on a global level where we go if the earths resources prove insufficient for supporting our lifestyle. At the moment it seems decision
makers are not asking that question on the contrary interference in the environment is increasing drastically. Humankind has continuously sought to free itself from natures constraints. Today we rule the planet and we are profoundly changing it to suit our needs. After two thousand years of stable climate since the last ice age experts are calling for the current Holocene Epoch to give way to a new geologic time named for a measurable human impact on the earths ecosystems anthropocene the age of man it marks the end of a Power Struggle that began two hundred years ago. Or
did we just have him sick enough in the early Nineteenth Century the idea emerged of Human Dominance over nature because evidently our freedom depended on it could pull social problems like poverty would be countered by Economic Growth and if we put you we believe going to solve our socio political problems we only needed to control nature itself a second i know that everything that. The secret to defeating poverty lay in making the most of the earths Natural Resources buried underground for Millennia Cold seemed like a gift from nature it was the fuel that powered the beginning of the Industrial Revolution a race for progress that spawned factories across europe. Manchester became the center of the Cotton Industry by the middle of the one nine hundred
century the english city surrounded by five hundred factories was blanketed in smaug from Blast Furnace says. It was the price for maternity but not everyone was prepared to pay it. Also lauderdale told it back to you both in france and england around the harris and Manchester House they were already protests by residents outraged by Stinking Factories and environmental degradation only dont they blame the factories for Epidemic Outbreaks and even population decline. Its interesting to note how this dissent was curbed also that in france a new medical doctrine of hygiene was propagated which argued that the basis of Public Health was not the environment but material prosperity. Meant that he shifts that was because that allowed no Economic Growth and industrialization would make the population as a whole more prosperous and thus also healthier. Only
a halt to this theory was a powerful argument that was used to get french authorities to continue approving new factories says the autoloader with on us this is a. If well for guaranteed health then factories were indispensable in eighteen ten friends demanded by decree that certain environmental criteria be respected before a factory could be built. Once a Building Permit was granted it couldnt be revoked. In cases of pollution or environmental contamination residents could sue for financial compensation in theory at least. And so environmental degradation has been a concern since the start of the Industrial Revolution yet Human Destruction of nature continues to be regarded as a necessary evil. Of. Textiles chemicals
and steel elice then one hundred years new industries developed above all in france and england and everywhere the power of coal was harnessed to operate machines. In addition new Production Techniques opened the door to Mass Production and mass consumption i dont know if the second pillar of down through the scene was the development of a Consumer Society which began to appear towards the end of the Nineteenth Century in the us along with the concept of brands. Of old episode is going to started with the introduction of Consumer Credit with which plays a pivotal role in the anthropocene since that is what allowed the Automobile Industry to flourish by the nineteenth twenties or half of all american households had an automobile that much earlier than in europe and two thirds of these cars were bought on credit for the. Was
a letter. I am i. A new era was dawning it was the birth of the american way of life a dream for so many. Desire. To dream was based on Industry Interests and consumer needs. A case in point street cars. Gradually they began disappearing from American Cities even though they were in widespread use and environmentally friendly. Carmakers jockeyed to get their product on the road. They bought out struggle Street Car Operators and replace trams with buses. In One Thousand Thirty Three president franklin d. Roosevelt created the nations first publicly owned power company. The move
increased demand for electricity across the u. S. Countryside. Coal plants were built even though some six million small windmills were already in place on farms across the Midwest Operating Irrigation pumps and had just started producing electricity. The dramatic effects of pollution on the climate were already scientifically documented in the late Nineteenth Century the swedish chemist and later Nobel Laureates on to are a new it was first calculated our mental awareness arose much earlier than many believe and. Why is it that we continue to ignore millions students today. Is it because Human Society has achieved such power over nature. That. Power can deceive a society and make it vulnerable to the ancient maya experience thats
a long. It was the year four hundred in central america. For a time the climate had been very favorable in the maya and hire me that aided the mayas rise to the most powerful civilization on the continent. They had their own script and astronomical calendar each city state had its own king whose prayers it was believed could call forth life giving bread. The population grew up with every generation. Maya society became increasingly complex and comprised of hierarchical social classes. But it lacked unity. Individual cities states coveted their neighbors resources
triggering Armed Conflicts can you. At its height the maya civilization numbered seventy cities states which were in constant conflict. Gradually the Climate Changed. There was less rainfall. Crop yields dropped. Food became scarce for a population accustomed to plenty. Then the worst drought in Seven Thousand years said. But the maya were not prepared to make any changes to their way of life they were incapable of adapting to new environmental conditions. Or is broke out. Fearing for their power the king sacrificed prisoners to appease the gods. But to no avail. Rebellions brought the city states. Just a century after exceeded by a civilization collapsed. Their temples are comparable to the skyscrapers of today. Where they invoked the gods to bring rain we bank on Technological Progress to stop Climate Change we are in the same miserable. Situation as they were. How can two hundred modern nations
achieve what seventy ancient city states fail to accomplish. Its a question thats been debated annually at the Un Climate Conference since one Nine Hundred Ninety two. That they didnt accept the land after the fall of the berlin wall the end of the cold war in the early one Nine Hundred Ninety s. Gave rise to new hope for the worlds problems could be solved through a global cooperation. And attempts were made to find Global Solutions like the signing of the one Nine Hundred Ninety seven kyoto protocol a Binding International treaty to slow Global Carbon emissions but that hope has evaporated instead paralysis has set in over Global Climate action. Worse still some countries have begun backtracking. In twenty twelve canada left the kyoto protocol. Without the threat of disciplinary action it is now free to exploit its colossal Oil Sand Deposits in alberta the equivalent of One Hundred Sixty Eight Billion barrels underground its the worlds Third Largest oil reserve. Its an ecological disaster this radical decision makes the countrys priorities clear the economy always trumps environmental concerns. All change requires courage because people fear change people experience change even if the change might be good for them in the long run many people are afraid of change for more than twenty years theres been an organized campaign here in theUnited States to persuade the American People change isnt really happening and therefore you dont have to worry about have to change anything because there isnt even a problem and thats a very attractive story for many people because wed rather that everything was fine wed rather not change wed rather there not be a problem the tragedy of the story in my opinion is twofold one is that because of just information weve lost a lot of time during which we could have and should have been working on solutions to the problem is now substantially worse and will be substantially harder to fix but also weve spread this path ology elsewhere. Its a minefield divergent interests. On the one hand we need to adapt to Climate Change and on the other people in the industrialized world are by no means willing to leave their comfort zone somewhat like the vikings who resisted any change to their
lifestyle. Were doomed by their complex social structure because they couldnt resolve conflicting interests when the Climate Changed. Into the same trap if we continue to place economic interests over the environment. How the. Ops. Just be fit with other different you must be fit when does a human being average. Normally only when hes in immediate danger when he sees something he cant escape. Like a Mountain Barreling down on a hundred measures that are shot still take off see what it would the boy is sort
of in hes the guy but if someone told him to go up the in twenty years a mammoth is going to come after you if you just stay put so he did and i would you know we simply dont want to acknowledge that we cant carry on this way forever. Our actions are always based on reflexes our way of thinking is limited because our reactions are still based on reflexes if were incapable of looking ahead pallywood. Is change possible if it is enforced in japan t