Foundations for Sustainability Brian D. Fath & Dan Fiscus Fulbright Distinguished Chair, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic Professor, Towson University, Maryland, USA Senior Research Scholar, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria Chapter 8: Technology and Applications in the context of holistic Life–Environment •Your reaction 1)Why did M.K. Hubbert depict the fossil fuel era as a very brief event in human history? 2) 2)What is a disadvantage of adding control loops? 1)Why are autocatalytic ones preferred? Holistic technologies •net increase in the orderliness of the natural and built environment and thus increase syntropy •is anticipatory and serves long-term goals by protecting Life and its essential environmental context •is self-referential and uses an internalist orientation to account for its own impacts on the environment Výsledek obrázku pro holistic technologies Energy futures –Is there an energy shortage? What would we do with more energy? – –M.K. Hubbert: Our principal constraints are cultural. – D:\fiscus\data\phd\research\proposal\hubbert-fig11-bw300.gif Growth is as dominant a paradigm as the machine •During the last two centuries we have known nothing but exponential growth and in parallel we have evolved what amounts to an exponential-growth culture, a culture so heavily dependent upon the continuance of exponential growth for its stability that it is incapable of reckoning with problems of non-growth. (p. 210). Case studies compatible with Holistic Life Science •Cradle-to-cradle design •Biomimicry •Permaculture •Ecological engineering Cradle to cradle Biomimicry •Nature inspired design Permaculture •Permanent (Agri)culture: •Observe and interact •Catch and store energy •Obtain a yield •Apply self-regulation and accept feedback •Use and value renewable resources and services •Produce no waste •Design from patterns to details •Integrate rather than segregate •Use small and slow solutions •Use and value diversity •Use edges and value the marginal •Creatively use and respond to change – Ecological Engineering Wetland water treatment Holistic Land Development •How to add more life capacity and support to a site? •Scale and carrying capacity www.pecs-science.org/ research/publications/publications/ aholisticapproachtostudyingsocialecologicalsystemsanditsapplicationtosoutherntransylvania.5.144972a 51495db7dbc812f3.html Practice what we preach •Science facilities • •Sustainable Masaryk – what would that look like? • europeanspallationsource.se/building-project/site-architecture-energy European Spallation Source Challenges •Why reductionism wins –Need an answer now –Need to look like we are doing something –People are hungry –People need a job –People need something to do (Closure of efficient cause) Discussion questions •How much of the fossil dividend do we allocate to Sustainers or transcenders? –None of the scenarios in Figure 8.1 involve continued growth –What does success look like? • •Human sense of self evolves to embrace both a discrete self and sustained self. Is that crazy talk? • •Is the best we can do with sustainability to be “less bad”? • •Is there a common aspect of the counter technologies? –Other examples?