No Exit: Ecological Limits and Climate Change

In the last decade or so we have really started seeing our world as being on the brink of destruction due to everyday human activity and its impacts on climate and ecological change. As a result, a large portion of our world today is seriously focused on going green in attempts to slow or even reverse the negative effects we have burden our environment with. The most obvious influence is the emissions produced by automobiles that are polluting our environment daily. Conversely, we are also developing and producing more and more eco-friendly fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles in an effort to stall total destruction of the environment. Hybrid cars are obviously not the sole answer to our problems, however they are a large piece to the puzzle.

 “Maintaining a sustainable context for human development is not only a political, scientific, technical or funding problem. It is fundamentally a cultural problem that requires reorienting human development and the built environment; artists have an important role to play not only in creating new cultural contexts, but also changing the way that science is done. (1)” Though retooling the entire world is an enormous task that would most likely take decades to complete, it is not impossible or impractical. This insurmountable task is in fact obtainable and hybrid cars are proof. We are obviously strides to revamp culture the green way, and hybrids are a good start. If hybrids are sustainable designs, then hopefully every car on the road will be more fuel-efficient and eco-friendly someday in the distant future.

 The role of artists and designers in the scientific community has become much clearer to me because of hybrid cars. Poorly designed cars usually do not sell very well, obviously. That is why transforming existing and successful car models into hybrids seems to have been the most effective design solution: if it ain’t broken… I think that this is very encouraging for designers and for our environment. Though there are still questions on the costs of designing hybrids…

 It is a fact that going green also means spending a bit more of green. Well, no one said saving the environment would be cheap. So obviously if you are someone who is a bit more economically minded, hybrids are not the answer for you...however, there are alternatives! For example, the Volkswagen Jetta TDI is a diesel-powered sedan that sells for about $2,500 more than the gasoline-powered version, yet it achieves 50% better economy (2). In actuality diesel fuel economy is less fragile than that of hybrids because driving style affects them much less. Additionally, several more "clean" diesels, built to take advantage of low-sulfur fuel, have been produced in the past few years and have proved to be rather effective thus far.

 So if you straight up cannot afford a hybrid, there are several fuel-efficient alternatives: ride the bus, ride a bike, WALK, buy a clean diesel vehicle, etc. If all else fails, recycle, recycle, recycle, and eventually everything will be fine... right?

 

(1) Roger Malina. ‘Lovely Weather: Asking What the Arts Can Do for the Sciences,’ in Ecomedia (Edith Russ Site for Media Art, 2007).

(2) http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Savinganddebt/Saveonacar/P37272.asp