Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
small proportion of its vast deserts. Europe could develop CSP in the south of Spain, or
in North Africa, where some of the electricity could be used to run desalination plants,
thereby eliminating conflicts over water. CSP is a hugely important strategy for reducing
our carbon emissions, and it should be implemented immediately wherever possible.
We will also need to drastically reduce and in many cases eliminate the insane and
energy-hungry practice of transporting produce around the world in favour of local pro-
duction wherever possible. For these measures to work, the vast majority of citizens
around the world will have to understand the fact that Gaia is now beginning to im-
pose the penalties of climate change for the massive transgressions of our industrial life-
styles. Substantial measures and real 'joined-up government' will be needed to make
these policies work. So far, this type of governance has been sadly lacking. A recent
report by the UK House of Lords Science and Technology Committee showed that cur-
rent energy-efficiency measures in the UK are ineffective because the money they save
is being spent to buy more goods or to expand business activities; because government
policies are not requiring strict energy-efficiency standards for products ranging from
buildings to electrical goods, and because insufficient funding is going into relevant re-
search.
Deep Ecology
This brings home the point that the real change has to be an inner one, for, as we have
just seen, even the most brilliant technological solutions could lead to disaster if they are
not used by wise human beings. Perhaps the most fundamental maxim of Gaian wisdom
is that we humans are fully accountable to our planet. There is simply no getting around
this, for humans are just as subject as any other species to the basic law of Gaia, which,
as you will remember, can be drawn like this (
Figure 44
):
