How to save the earth

Friday, January 28, 2022 Francisco 0 Comments

Charles C. Mann, The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World

Great book without a solution or a receipt.


If you are a Prophet you think earth is finite and the only way to save the earth/us is less, less people, less food , less meat, less pressure on the envoirment. Everything will be expensive, The poor will never have access to what we have. The only way to save us is to go back and make less pressure on the world. Circular economy etc...


The wizards believe technology will save the day. The best thing for nature is progress and technology is to make more with less. In the rich countries we have more trees, parks gardens and we don't need to cut trees. We recycle the trash etc Carbon emissions are going down ... We have clean rivers. 


I am a Wizard by nature, but I see the point of Prophets, if you improve agriculture yields and make food cheap like Norman Borlaug (Nobel Prize winner) did in Mexico in the 60's food prices go down and population increases big time. After some years we need to make more otherwise we will have shortages again. And the Wizards solution is not without costs, we need to fertilize, we need to use the resources big time.

Apparently the world is going on the Prophets way , renewables and the ESG agenda will make everything more expensive, people will do less, travel less, the house would be cooler, the vegetables more bio and expensive , the car will have less autonomy, there is going to be less wasted food, we will have shortages of power, etc...The poor will be much worse. To have children would be a big decision.

The best thing of the book that I did not know is that forests capture 30% of current carbon emissions that are stuck in the wood until there is a fire or decomposition of a tree. If we planted big areas with trees we would solve the Carbon problem. Just like that. Yes this is a wizard solution. I am a Wizard.





“Prophets look at the world as finite, and people as constrained by their environment. Wizards see possibilities as inexhaustible, and humans as wily managers of the planet. One views growth and development as the lot and blessing of our species; others regard stability and preservation as our future and our goal. Wizards regard Earth as a toolbox, its contents freely available for use; Prophets think of the natural world as embodying an overarching order that should not casually be disturbed.”
― Charles C. Mann, The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World

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