Rob Socolow EHP Conference

7/29/2019 Rob Socolow EHP Conference

1/18

Coming to Grips with Future TimeRobert Socolow

Environmental Humanities in a Changing World

Princeton Environmental Institute

Princeton UniversityMarch 8, 2103


2/18

Thanks

to Ken Hiltner, for being the most proactive visiting

professor that I can recall

to Steve Pacala, for making PEI spectacularly

interdisciplinary, problem focused, and welcoming

to Tom Barron, whose commitment to the interplay of

the humanities and the environment is driving

educational innovation at Princeton.


3/18

Princeton Energy and Climate Scholars(PECS)

17 current PECS student members

14 faculty members

Diverse departmental backgrounds

Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences

Chemical and Biological Engineering

Civil and Environmental Engineering Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Economics

Electrical Engineering

Geosciences

Mechanical and Aerospace

Engineering Operations Research and Financial

Engineering

Princeton Environmental Institute

Woodrow Wilson School of Public and

International Affairs


4/18

A Tour of Images

drawn from my teaching and lecturing


5/18

Substituting IT for travel

From The New Yorker, April 21, 2008


6/18

Legacy: National Highway System


7/18

Legacy: U.S. Power Plants

Source: Benchmarking Air Emissions, April 2006. The report wasco-sponsored by CERES, NRDC and PSEG.


8/18

Graphics courtesy of DOE

Photovoltaics Program

Technology and Context


9/18

The Fire You Cant Quench

Source: Nautilus Institute for Security and

Sustainability, 2011.After the Deluge: Short and

Medium-term Impacts of the Reactor DamageCaused by the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.

Fukushima Daiichi, before the accidentTime after shutdown (seconds), log scale

1%

8

6

4

2

0 1 103 105 107

Percento

ffullpower

1 day

After-heat

Source: A. Nero. Jr., The Guidebook

to Nuclear Reactors, p. 54


10/18

The future coal power plant


11/18

Wind Electricity

Source: Hal Harvey, TPG talk, Aspen, CO, July 2007

Are they ugly

or beautiful?


12/18

Patient Earth

I will apply, for the benefit of the

sick, all measures that are required,

avoiding those twin traps of

overtreatment and therapeuticnihilism.

Hippocrates

* Modern version of the Hippocratic oath, Louis Lasagna, 1964,

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/doctors/oath_modern.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/doctors/oath_modern.htmlhttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/doctors/oath_modern.html


13/18

Will we geo-engineer the planet?


14/18

Earth enhancement

Geoengineering will allow us to enhance the planet, muchas genetic engineering provides ways to enhance the

human species.

Genetic engineering now allows enhancement of the

human species (prettier, taller, smarter,)

Geoengineering will allow enhancementof the planet

notably, the moderation of extreme events:

warmer winters where people want themcooler summers where people want them

less severe storms and droughts

Is anything lost?

sweetspots


15/18

Enhancement is problematic

Michael Sandel sets up a dichotomy to exploremodern medicine:

Cure or restore vs. enhance or perfect.

Fertility and sex selection

Eugenics

Steroids and sportsCosmetic surgery

Hyper-parenting

He argues that enhancement can be pursued to

excess. He sees a loss of the ability to savor

the life we have been gifted. He sees value inrandomness, the unbidden.

When science moves faster than moral understanding, as it does today,

men and women struggle to articulate their unease.


16/18

Does Climate Change put Democracy at Risk?

Students wrote, last month:

At what point is it necessary just to implement policy

irrespective of what the general public thinks? [1]

When do we say, enough is enough, and decide that

all mitigation techniques have failed, leaving us with no

choice but to try geoengineering technologies even if

the risks are unknown. [5]

How much time do we have left? [10]


17/18

Please, work with us, at least sometimes.

Awe and knowledge Privilege science over myth, hard as that is.

A compulsion to control. What is needed is courage to live in the

midst of the ambiguities of this moment without drawing back into

fear and a compulsion to control.* Zoos and wildness.

The moving finger. Fateful choices. Path dependency.

Responsibility and uncertainty. Humility. Hippocrates.

Destiny. Future time and the collective future of the species. Whatis lost if the human experiment comes to an end? Self-

consciousness and the multi-generational project.

*Journey of the Universe, Brian Thomas Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker (Yale, 2011), p. 117


18/18

In order to know the truth,

it is necessary to imaginea thousand falsehoods.

Sidney Coleman, ca. 1964, perhaps a

quote from H.G. Wells

Documents

Rob Socolow EHP Conference