Technological Change and the Environment: Week 5

Its obvious that this "myth of progress" is just that, a myth. Both the state and corporations create this ideology in order to maintain their capitalist ways without public interference. As discussed previously, corporations have immense control over our media outlets, but this chapter takes it much further, explaining how corporations also control our technological trajectory, or research and development. The agricultural and industrial revolution gave way to a shift in power relations between humans and nature such that humans now believe they can do what they wish with nature in order to meet their "needs". That is, they can make"withdrawals" from the environment ( deforestation, oil extraction) as well as make "additions" to the environment in the form of pollution through the process of producing and distributing goods. Because the states goals are to increase military power and increase economic competitiveness they fund the research and development of corporations to continuously create new products to attain economic prosperity, regardless of the effect such research and development has on our social system-ecosystem dynamics. Clearly then, the state and corporations control the technological trajectory in such a way that it meets the needs of a few (elites), rather then the masses. Something needs to be done about this, but what? I feel the state needs to distribute research funding more equally so we are able to develop more sustainable practices, as well as create more stringent environmental policies that corporations must follow. Unfortunately, that wouldn't serve their immediate economic desires...so it seems as if we need to find a way in which we can still attain ecomonic and technological progress in a more environmentally sustainable way.

Corporate Power : Week 4

I thought the film Manufactured Consent was a good choice for this presentation in that it did a good job of explaining how media outlets are controlled by large corporations which ultimately distorts the kind of stories or news that are covered and followed in such a way that they are in line with corporate ideologies. Overall this is an interesting concept and one that definitely needs to be brought to the forefront of peoples minds so they are aware of the potential biases they are being bombarded with. For instance, as mentioned in the text reading, corporations often hire their own set of "experts" to refute what any others are saying, particularly about environmental issues. Corporations use their power over the media not only to create and maintain our consumer culture for their profit, but they also distort our news in such a way that many, if not most, people are unaware or attuned to the fact that these corporations are destroying our environment and we are helping by not taking a stand! It seems obvious to me that there needs to be some serious state intervention in this matter. Someone needs to take control over the situation so that society can be informed about all the problems we face, and to what degree we are facing them. If the state would just take some of the money they give to corporations and fund some more productive research into the effects of such mass production and consumption and investigate some more environmentally friendly ways of doing thing we could be headed in the right direction!

State and Policy - week 3

I think the idea of imperialism is one that must be looked at closely, as it is becoming a serious problem not only for third world countries but also for the environment. I identified very much with the idea Simon put forth that the state doesn't really exist as they have lack of choice on policies - it seems rather that they are simply an agent set out to protect corporations and imperialism. This seems evident in that the state has made not effort to intervene in American imperialism, regardless of the environmental and social effects such imperialism is having on the world. The state is simply concerned with making money and maintaining economic competitiveness with the rest of the world and it seems they will do anything to keep the treadmill of production moving, whether that be taking advantage of third world resources or people, the states main priority appears to be protecting and securing economic wealth at all costs. It appears to me that this attitude will only get us into trouble down the line...if state policies aren't implemented now this treadmill of production will run us right into the ground. Although it may seem as if new technologies can be created to fix the problems we cause, i don't believe that is possible...if we don't find a way to work with our environment it will eventually fail us.