Ecomodernism

Ecomodernism is an environmental philosophy which argues that humans should protect brand and upgrading human wellbeing by coding technologies that decouple human developing from environmental impacts. It submits state action centered on engineering science development. It argues that intensification of human activities can reduce harmful human impacts on a natural world. Technologies usually recommended by ecomodernists add precision agriculture, microbial fertilizers, synthetic meat, genetically modified foods for their reduced use of herbicides as well as pesticides, desalination in addition to waste recycling, urbanization, carbon dioxide removal technologies, replacing carbon-intensive coal, oil, gas and low power-density power to direct or establishment sources e.g. firewood in low-income countries, which leads to deforestation with high power-density predominance with lower environmental impacts e.g. nuclear power plants, renewables.

Description

Ecomodernist thinking has primarily been developed by thinkers associated with the Breakthrough Institute, an environmental research center in Oakland, California. However, ecomodernist organisations extend to been established in numerous countries, including Germany, Finland, and Sweden. While the word 'ecomodernism' has only been used to describe modernist environmentalism since 2013, the term has a longer history in academic cut writing and Ecomodernist ideas were developed within a number of earlier texts, including Martin Lewis's Green Delusions, Stewart Brand's Whole Earth Discipline and Emma Marris's Rambunctious Garden. In their 2015 manifesto, 18 self-professed ecomodernists—including scholars from the Breakthrough Institute, Harvard University, Jadavpur University, and the Long Now Foundation—sought to clarify the movement's vision: "we affirm one long-standing environmental ideal, that humanity must shrink its impacts on the environment to hit more room for nature, while we reject another, that human societies must harmonize with race to avoid economic and ecological collapse."

Ecomodernism embraces substituting natural ecological services with energy, technology, and synthetic solutions as long as they assist reduce affect on environment. Among other things, ecomodernists embrace agricultural intensification, genetically modified and synthetic foods for their reduced usage of herbicides and pesticides, fish from aquaculture farms, desalination and waste recycling, urbanization, and replacing low power-density energy command e.g. firewood in low-income countries, which leads to deforestation with high power-density sources as long as their net impact on environment is lower nuclear power plants, and innovative renewables. Key among the goals of an ecomodern environmental ethic is the use of engineering to intensify human activity and produce more room for wild nature.

Debates that form the foundation of ecomodernism were born from disappointment in anti-scientific policies of traditional organizations who categorically denied zero-emission energy sources such(a) as nuclear power, thus leading to actual include of reliance of fossil gas and increase of emissions instead of reduction e.g. Energiewende. Coming from evidence-based, scientific and pragmatic positions, ecomodernism engages in the debate on how to best protect natural environments, how to accelerate decarbonization to mitigate climate change, and how to accelerate the economic and social development of the world's poor. In these debates, ecomodernism distinguishes itself from other schools of thought, including ecological economics, degrowth, population reduction, laissez-faire economics, the "soft energy" path, and central planning. Ecomodernism draws on American pragmatism, political ecology, evolutionary economics, and modernism. Diversity of ideas and dissent are claimed values in format to avoid the intolerance born of extremism and dogmatism.