David Peat

Re-envisioning the Planet 173sent head over heels. Common sense warns us that rational approachessuch as risk analysis will always have their limits.Our future contains a number of important issues: global warming,human cloning, depletion of energy sources, sustainable economics,overpopulation, worldwide distribution of food, depletion of theozone layer, human–computer interfaces, and so on. We need to makewise decisions. But how are we to act in the face of uncertainty?We are told that genetic engineering will increase food yields andhelp us to eliminate certain medical disorders. We are told that oncethe technical problems involving nuclear fusion have been solved therewill be abundant energy for the entire world. We are told that humancapacities will increase once individuals are linked directly into a computer;that ever newer materials will be produced for our homes andautomobiles; that new communication technologies will revolutionizethe way we work and learn. We are told that human beings will colonizespace and one day may travel to the stars. We are told that there isno limit to human ingenuity, no limit to intellectual advancement andtechnological progress.On the one hand the future holds a variety of promises, on theother, a number of threats. Just how are we to view that future? Whatposition should we take? Where should we stand?Often the best position from which to view the future is from thepast. Let us look at the history of a series of advances that promised toimprove all our lives—Freon, leaded gasoline, DDT, and antibiotics.FreonThe coils inside a refrigerator need a gas that will both liquefy andevaporate easily so that heat can be extracted from the food and radiatedfrom the coils in the back of the refrigerator. Ideally, in case ofleaks, it should be safe for humans and chemically inert. Such a gas wasdiscovered in the 1930s by a chemist named Thomas Midgley. Trademarkedas Freon, it consists of what are known as chlorofluorocarbons.It was a dream substance used not only in refrigerators, but alsoin air conditioners and as the propellant in aerosol cans.