assignment

In this piece, the final chapter in Lovelock's book, The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning, he writes that, "We know that we have made appalling mistakes but we have cast aside the old idea that we are born evil and now acknowledge that the whims of our fickle natures were amplified by technology, so that like a drunkard driving a tank we have accidentally trashed our world. Guilt is inappropriate; we seek restitution and the restoration of our lost world, not punishment" (p. 150).

David Suzuki made a similar point in the film The 11th Hour, where he suggests that the very quality that set us apart (above?) all other animals -- i.e. our intelligence -- has, in the long run, been our undoing, as it led us to develop technologies that (eventually) destroyed the environment and to live ways of life that we considered to be removed or apart from nature.

With this in mind, and having read Lovelock's chapter, answer the following questions:

1. Do you agree or disagree with the suggestion that, from an environmental perspective, were we always a doomed species? By that, I mean has our unique development of and reliance upon ever-more complex technologies (starting with sticks and fire) -- and the exploitation of resources they entail -- always thrust us into conflict with nature? Give your reasons.

2. Even Lovelock ends on an optimistic note: "How could anyone be a pessimist and imagine that the global heating crisis is the end for us or Gaia? We will probably both survive and from our descendants could evolve the wiser species that could live even closer in Gaia and perhaps make her the first citizen of our Galaxy" (p. 162). With this in mind -- and given the fact that our industrial mode of life of the past 250 years represents less than 0.2% of our existence as a species -- are you optimistic or pessimistic about our very long-term prospects for survival? Explain why.