I get plenty of emails and comments thanking me for my work but expressing disappointment that I don’t offer solutions to the problems I describe.
Asking for solutions misses the point—solutions are part of the future, and we’re notoriously bad at predicting the future. We rush to fix problems without fully understanding how they developed or the complex factors at play.
It’s the kind of thinking that treats the world like an engine, assuming it just needs a quick tune-up or a new part. What we ignore are the ripple effects—how those “fixes” cascade through the system, often creating new problems we never saw coming as we push deeper into uncertainty.
Here are a few examples of solutions that created problems even worse than the ones they were meant to fix.
- The Green Revolution boosted crop yields with fertilizers, pesticides, and high-yield seeds. It left a legacy of environmental damage, depleted soils, water scarcity, and deepened inequality.
- The War on Terror aimed to eliminate terrorism and spread democracy but led to prolonged conflicts, regional instability, the rise of ISIS, and massive costs with little success.
- Kudzu was introduced to the U.S. to prevent soil erosion and improve agriculture. Instead, it became an uncontrollable invasive species, smothering native plants and ecosystems across the Southeast.
- Corn ethanol was touted as a green solution to reduce fossil fuel dependence. Instead, it drove up food prices, consumed vast amounts of water and energy, and barely cut carbon emissions.
- Adding lead to gasoline solved engine knocking but created a public health disaster. Leaded fuel poisoned air, soil, and water for decades, causing widespread neurological damage, especially in children.
My work focuses on energy, the environment, and tipping points where solutions fail just as badly. Fossil fuels drove climate change, plastics created a pollution crisis, and nuclear energy left radioactive waste. Hydro dams, fracking, wind farms, solar, and deep-sea mining all brought unintended costs. Well-meaning human activities have inadvertently pushed the oceans and the Amazon to the brink of collapse.
All these new problems came from our relentless pursuit of progress, with little thought given to the unintended consequences along the way.
“The progress narrative is the pervasive idea within our culture that technological innovation, markets, and our institutions of scientific research and education enable and promote a general improvement in human life.
“Progress, as we define it now, ignores or downplays the scale of its side effect (or externalities) [that] occur in a complex cascade.”
Consilience Project including Daniel Schmachtenberger
The problem is our human-centered perspective, which blinds us to the reality that we’re not separate from the planet but deeply connected to and dependent on it for survival and prosperity. We treat the Earth as a resource to exploit, ignoring that its health is inseparable from our own. This disconnect fuels short-term thinking and decisions that erode the very systems we rely on to live.
Let’s start learning to adopt an earth-centered perspective.
I’ve said many times that the scale of energy consumption lies at the heart of the human predicament. It’s woven into every facet of the challenges I write about. While reducing energy use—fossil fuels and renewables—isn’t a solution in itself, any honest assessment of our situation must acknowledge it as part of the pathway forward for humanity and the planet.
The response I hear most often, and one I can’t disagree with, is: “That will never happen.” Fair enough. But if we’re unwilling to even consider a key piece of the puzzle, how serious are we about the solution?
Or is this really about change—feeling like we’re doing something—without actually facing the hard truths? We can’t cherry-pick the parts of a solution we like and ignore the rest, then expect it to work.
So, in response to your calls for solutions, I ask: do you truly want them, or are you just looking for a simple answer to avoid the complexity of the problems we face?
I suggest putting everything back on the table for discussion—including renewables. They’re just another way to burn through more energy while convincing ourselves we’re solving the problem.
Can we start trying to see the world through an earth-centered lens? It’s the shift that I think must happen before anything else. Instead of rushing to fix problems and slap on solutions, let’s pause and think about how our actions ripple out to affect everyone and everything around us.
Image credit: Art Berman. Click the image to enlarge.
That’s not easy nor is it quick—it’s a psychological shift as much as anything else, and quick fixes haven’t worked anyway. But if we can adopt that framework and apply it to the challenges we face as a society, and as part of Earth’s living systems, we may finally be ready to have a real conversation about solutions. Not before.
That advice applies to me too.
Link to follow-up article:
Rethinking Energy, Productivity, and the Illusion of Endless Growth
Art Berman, Shattering Energy Myths, 3 December 2024
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Art Berman is Director of Labyrinth Consulting Services, Sugar Land, Texas, and a world-renowned energy consultant with expertise based on over 40 years of experience working as a petroleum geologist. Visit his website, Shattering Energy Myths: One Fact at a Time, and learn more about Art here.
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