Can we leave nature behind?

The typical approach to environmentalism involves finding ways for humans to live in harmony with nature. But what if that’s wrong? What if our destiny is to leave nature behind? It’s a radical idea, but it’s worth a moment of reflection.

A group of respected economists and environmentalists from the Breakthrough Institute in Oakland, Calif., recently published a document they call the Ecomodernist Manifesto. One of their ideas is a doozy: Humanity’s best hope to thrive in the future – and solve environmental problems such as climate change – is to evolve to the point where we are no longer constrained by nature.

Their approach to the environment goes far beyond cost-benefit calculations. In contrast to many economists, they don’t see nature merely as a resource on which one can place a value. Rather, they see it as priceless, a deep source of joy and beauty, part of what makes life worth living. Their concern is that it can no longer support the growth of human activity. “Human flourishing,” they write, “has taken a serious toll on natural, nonhuman environments and wildlife.”

Their solution: Isolate ourselves from nature, or “decouple” our economic activity from it. Rely even more on technology, yet find some way to keep it from grinding nature to bits.

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How? First, encourage the further concentration of human populations within the cities where more than 50 percent of us already live. If, say, more than 80 percent dwelled in such centers of economic productivity and per-capita energy efficiency, humanity’s consumption of resources could be rationalized, leaving countryside spaces less populated and, at least potentially, available for nature.

Finally, to make decoupling happen, we must find new and more potent sources of clean energy, including safer technology for nuclear fission and, if possible, nuclear fusion.

Even if we do flock into cities, find unlimited, clean sources of energy, and learn to use energy more efficiently than ever, our total energy consumption may well keep growing as we find new ways to use it.

Can we really sequester all the damaging aspects of our activities, collecting them up like trash and neutralizing them in a set of small repositories, out of sight, and even outside of nature? That would be great. It also seems a little fantastic. •

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