Technofixes by Corporate Watch: A Bit Of Holiday Reading
Posted by keith on July 20th, 2009
The Unsuitablog is going to be taking a break for a week so I can have a bit of a recharge, but while I rest I’m going to finish reading a document produced by the UK research and campaigning group Corporate Watch. This was released in 2008, but for some reason I hadn’t come across it until now: but what a find!
As you may know, The Unsuitablog has a particular hatred for the Technofix; the idea that the world’s problems can be solved by technical means rather than through major social change. Corporations and their political lap-dogs adore the Technofix because it allows the system to continue pursuing its toxic, profit-motivated dream. Of course, we know that Technofixes are exactly what they seem — a fix.
You can take that two ways: a temporary repair job that masks the root cause of the problem, and something that is put in place to make sure that only one side wins. Both of these are true for Technofixes:
Technofixes are very appealing. They appeal to leaders who want huge projects to put their name to. They appeal to governments in short electoral cycles who don’t want to have to face hard choices of changing the direction of development from economic growth to social change. Technofixes appeal to corporations which expect to capture new markets with intellectual property rights and emissions trading. They appeal to advertising-led media obsessed with the next big thing, but too shallow to follow the science. They appeal to a rich-world population trained as consumers of hi-tech gadgets. They appeal to (carbon) accountants: technological emissions reductions are neatly quantifiable, if you write the sum properly. Technofixes appeal, in short, to the powerful, because they offer an opportunity to maintain power and privilege.
The Corporate Watch report is very well written indeed — based on what I have read so far, as I said, I’m still reading it — and contains a lot of information that was new to me; these people really do know their stuff. Of course, it is not the last word on Technofixes, and some of the conclusions may be too conservative for our current situation, but it is still (unsurprisingly) far more radical than anything produced by any corporation, political group or mainstream environmental organisation.
To download the article, click on this link.