T&R: Hot Flat & Crowded

Thoughts and Reflections - Hot Flat & Crowded

     This article starts out with the author defining a new term: E.C.E, or energy climate era. The author argues that we are no longer in any "post-era" i.e Cold War but we are actually entering a new world-wide revolution similar to that of the industrial or enlightenment era. He states that we are on a collision course with damaging the earth's biosphere permanently and completely. The fact is we need a green revolution to start slowing down the inevitable climate destruction. Ever since the industrial revolution we have used "fuels from hell." which are fuels that come from below ground and cannot be replenished. The use of these fuels has caused massive CO2 levels and green house gases. These things are trapped in the atmosphere and are going to stay that way for hundreds of years. This on top of the massively growing population means that are earth is getting hot and crowded. The author argues that we need to think of ourselves in the new energy climate era so that we are able to start damage control before biblical sized droughts and floods start occurring. When the world gets hot it means we destroyed the climate. When the author says flat he is referring to how the Internet made it possible for many individuals to connect over extremely long distances instantaneously. He is also referring to the fact that more and more people are now rising into the middle class, and the super-duper billionaires are starting to drop down as well. The Internet also added the ability for everybody to compete in the global economy i.e ebay to self publishing/self producing. My favorite music genre synthwave is produced entirely on computers, and released onto on line platforms only. A good example of this is the band GUNSHIP. However there are several issues with the world the today, first being energy poverty. This is where we are phisically unable to provide enough energy for the people. The author gave an example of a restaurant in Johannesburg where there are blackouts due to lack of energy. This makes people unable to connect to the Internet,and therefor unable to compete in a new global economy. Another issue identified within the article is that the massive climate change plus pollution has lead to massive biodiversity loss, one example in the article is the recently extinct yangze river dolphin. Also we are coming to the end of our earths natural resources, causing a huge backup on supply and demand causing the delay, and over building of massive shipping boats. The markets cannot keep up. Another major issue is "petrodictatoships." the example given is when dictators rise to power and automatically control massive wealth due to oil reserves, like when Putin cut off the oil supply from Ukraine. The author believes that the world is truly on a downward spiral and there is only damage control. He says that we are frogs in a slowly boiling pot, if we do not band together, we will all be boiled alive.

This video is a song by GUNSHIP, a band that is utilizing the Internet in a way the article was talking about. Without the Internet new, and innovative indie artists would not be able to compete with the pop music industry. 






Tech Noir. Prod. GUNSHIP. Perf. GUNSHIP. YouTube. Topic, 25 July 2015. Web. 6 Sept. 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDjNTeynUPY>.