{"id":8001,"date":"2015-01-22T12:01:31","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T17:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/?p=8001"},"modified":"2021-06-13T21:52:10","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T02:52:10","slug":"sustainability-bottleneck-or-no-one-here-gets-out-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2015\/01\/22\/sustainability-bottleneck-or-no-one-here-gets-out-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainability bottleneck (or, No one here gets out alive?)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Astrophysicist<\/a> and NPR blogger<\/a> Adam Frank writes about the “sustainability bottleneck<\/a>” as the state faced by technological civilizations like ours, which have learned how to “intensively harvest” energy, but not how to sustain themselves through the crisis this harvesting sets off.<\/p>\n

It turns out there may be millions of planets that give rise to life in our galaxy alone. Frank asks, “So where is everybody?” and then answers that “Maybe not everyone — maybe no one — makes it to the other side” — which seems to me like the collectivist version of Jim Morrison’s famous quip that “no one here gets out alive.”<\/p>\n

Frank and fellow astrobiologist<\/a> Woodruff Sullivan develop this idea in a fascinating article<\/a> published in the journal Anthropocene<\/a>, where they coin the term SWEIT for “Species with Energy-Intensive Technology.” That’s a term I would question, since it’s not so much the species<\/em> that is the issue here as it’s the techno-ecological system<\/em> — a mode of production<\/a> in Marxist parlance, that includes members of one or more species (humanity, in our case), but also various crucial relations with other species, tools, entities, and processes. It’s worth debating alternative terms for this beyond the speciecentric “SWEIT,” just as it’s worth debating the virtues and limitations of the term “Anthropocene.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But the problem Frank and Sullivan address — how to get through the sustainability bottleneck — is perhaps the koan<\/a> of our time, and I find their sober and scientific approach to it refreshing. The article uses nonlinear dynamical systems theory to explore cosmic evolution, planetary habitability, mass extinctions, and other matters relevant to understanding the possibilities of getting through the sustainability bottleneck. (For an open-access, pre-publication version of the Frank and Sullivan article, entitled “Sustainability and the astrobiological perspective,” see here.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Their work makes me think that if humanity’s Plan A should be to do our best to get through that bottleneck, perhaps Plan B might be to leave behind, and maybe broadcast, some useful lessons for why we failed. In other words, to leave behind some extraterrestrial literature for those who come after us. (Space graffiti, anyone? I know the idea that we should leave anything behind will sound presumptuous to my anti-anthropocentrist friends, but so be it.)<\/p>\n

Buddhists speak of the value of acknowledging the good fortune of being born human — at least of being born human in circumstances where we can hear about, and perhaps act on, the possibility of liberation.<\/p>\n

The astrobiologists’ research suggests going back a few steps — and also thinking forward one or two. Going back means being grateful to have arisen in the kind of universe that produces planets, life, and civilizations, even if the chances of “our own civilization” getting through its bottleneck are humbling. (God may indeed play dice with the universe — which can be a fine thing if one of the throws of the dice will be a winner. Some of the other bottles might produce some fine wine while they last.)<\/p>\n

And, looking forward, we can anticipate that one day a civilization might arise that will solve the kinds of issues ours faces — issues of short-sightedness, egocentrism, illusion about the nature of reality, and so on — to get through that bottleneck.<\/p>\n

Next (scary) question: what, then?<\/em><\/p>\n

\"broken-bottles\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Astrophysicist and NPR blogger Adam Frank writes about the “sustainability bottleneck” as the state faced by technological civilizations like ours, which have learned how to “intensively harvest” energy, but not how to sustain themselves through the crisis this harvesting sets off. It turns out there may be millions of planets that give rise to life in our galaxy alone. Frank […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[688615,660440],"tags":[123667,123571,4417,25051,4433,123572],"class_list":["post-8001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthropo_scene","category-manifestos-and-auguries","tag-anthropocene","tag-astrobiology","tag-buddhism","tag-cosmology","tag-sustainability","tag-sustainability-bottleneck"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-253","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8731,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2016\/04\/20\/artistic-bubbleology-101\/","url_meta":{"origin":8001,"position":0},"title":"Artistic bubbleology 101","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"April 20, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the best ways to respond to the\u00a0Bubble\u00a0I mentioned in the last post is through the arts. Here's\u00a0the poster for my summer course examining artistic responses to the global crisis.","rel":"","context":"In "Academe"","block_context":{"text":"Academe","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/academe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8719,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2016\/04\/19\/living-in-a-bubble\/","url_meta":{"origin":8001,"position":1},"title":"Living in a bubble","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"April 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been using the metaphor of the Sustainability Bottleneck in my teaching, but another one that is more immediately graspable is The Bubble. 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(The standard answer, from the well informed, was: nope, it\u2019s inequality, extractive capitalism, institutional inertia, patriarchal values, colonialism, et al. \u201cOverpopulation\u201d was a symptom, not the disease.) The population-mongers have mostly faded\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropocene"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2023\/10\/Screen-Shot-2023-10-14-at-8.25.05-AM.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2023\/10\/Screen-Shot-2023-10-14-at-8.25.05-AM.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2023\/10\/Screen-Shot-2023-10-14-at-8.25.05-AM.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2023\/10\/Screen-Shot-2023-10-14-at-8.25.05-AM.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2023\/10\/Screen-Shot-2023-10-14-at-8.25.05-AM.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2023\/10\/Screen-Shot-2023-10-14-at-8.25.05-AM.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10098,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2019\/03\/17\/p-n-transition-or-toward-the-neocene\/","url_meta":{"origin":8001,"position":3},"title":"P-N transition, or, toward the Neocene","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"March 17, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"It's nice to see archdruid John Michael Greer's proposal for a \"Pleistocene-Neocene transition\" get a little traction in the science press -- specifically, in a Science Alert article by psychologist Matthew Adams. Greer, whose writings on religion and ecology are respectably out-of-the-box, advocates against the Anthropocene label on the basis\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropocene"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2019\/03\/Titanicentersicefields-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2019\/03\/Titanicentersicefields-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2019\/03\/Titanicentersicefields-2.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2019\/03\/Titanicentersicefields-2.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8385,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2015\/09\/11\/not-just-waiting-for-godot\/","url_meta":{"origin":8001,"position":4},"title":"Not just waiting for Godot","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"September 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"You may take this as more optimistic blathering from within the pessimistic morass, but here goes. Those of us who teach environmental studies -- who teach impressionable young adults about the colossal challenges facing humanity in the coming decades, with the looming climate crisis, resource wars and (human and nonhuman)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropocene"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/UmDrLaebUa4\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9278,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2017\/05\/18\/the-sf-of-sustainability\/","url_meta":{"origin":8001,"position":5},"title":"The SF of sustainability","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"May 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Since it's the Holocene\u00a0that has provided the conditions for the (human-led) biogeochemical experimentation that has now likely achieved a runaway state, and since \"Holocene\" was never anything other than a placeholder term -- it only means \"entirely new\" -- it seems inappopriate to replace it with the term \"Anthropocene.\" \"Holocene\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropocene"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8001"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11959,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8001\/revisions\/11959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}