… included some sci-fi-ishly eeerily good news. We all want to believe in good news but some of it seems like the “free lunch” variety (for example, a blast furnace that vaporizes plastic and turns it into clean energy without any emissions – excess gases become fuel that can be used to power airplanes):
“The fuel that is made from the FastOx technology is reportedly 20 times cleaner than California fuel standards. Additionally, all of the gases that are generated by the chemical process are captured for reuse—for instance, to replace fossil fuels that power airplanes or for use as fertilizer, hydrogen, or ethanol.”
Read more: Top 10 Most Exciting Environmental News Stories for 2019 Raise Hope for An Eco-Friendly Year Ahead
It all sounds good – but I am skeptical.
Furthermore: Even if we were to invent a car that runs on air, we’ll still have the problems of obesity and social isolation, and un-walkable neighborhoods cut off from one another by multi-lane high-speed roads.
Maybe we will figure out how to grow food without pollinators – but would we really want to live in a world without bees and flowers?
How much does beauty and wonder matter to us?
That may be USAmerican mainstream society’s biggest flaw: we devalue beauty, atmosphere, sense of wonder. Well, second-biggest, after devaluing other creatures and our fellow humans.
It’s all part of the same root: a disconnect from nature. And the fixes all start from the same root: Re-connect with nature.