The five chapters of GMT included here are those that made
the 'press'. Those chapters left behind told a more chilling
tale about what the future would impose upon us. Some of the
themes that were excluded were reconstituted into a fictitious
story which too, has retained its currency.
There have been some things that have taken me by surprise,
however. In GMT, I believed that entropy would be reduced by
connectivity; that fewer trips would be required to do work.
Such has not been the case. Indeed, more trips by plane are
made than ever before.
I also believed that technological advances
would generate basic solutions to potability.
The sheer increase in consumption by the West, especially the
United States and Canada gives me every reason to believe that
beyond excessive entropy generation will continue, and indeed
accelerate. In China, deforestation is so widespread that the
nation cannot meet its own demand for wood. There too is evidenced
the overconsumption of natural resources with no declaration
from planners that the rate of culling was excessive.
Many in the third world want the standard of living that they
catch on television. They will never have it: My most basic
observation holds true. We in the West can expect to enjoy a
lower standard of living in a fundamental sense: Our air and
water are polluted. Very little fresh water exists in 2002.
Much of the store of fresh water, the polar ice caps, are melting
into the brine, becoming useless to us as fresh water. The third
world cannot look to the West to supply it with anything outside
of what they receive in aid.
Bad all over, getting worse. Nobody's talking.
Some telltale signs? Obesity is a perplexion or an indicator
that may have relevance to survivability. One response to uncertainty
is an increase in appetite which begets more of the same, with
one obvious facet. There is little discriminateness; obese people
will eat a diet that draws from any food type, within local
palates. This in the long run may engender obese people with
the ability to survive in ecosystems that are diversity poor.
I do not yet know how things will unfold beyond my projections
of date. I suggest that by the year 2012, I will have a better
understanding of the 'different' regime that we are moving toward.
I worry that the survivability attributes that I described in
the previous paragraph may visit us soon, which to me translates
into within my lifetime.
Charles McRobert
MES, York University, Toronto, 1992
Green Material Throughput
