Reader please note that the issues raised in this article, have been caricatured. So when it says that scientists can't do this or that, it should be read as most scientists... or in general, scientists .... Exceptions to a rule can always be found. The name Man is used to denote mankind. Also please note that this document is updated from time to time.

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The problem with technology is that nobody appears to be able to stem its rapid growth, let alone control it. Fuelled by the tenets (dogma, doctrine) of the freemarket, technology has been embraced widely by businesses and armies to gain advantage over others. It has allowed them to build slaves powered by cheap fossil fuel, and now these slaves have primitive brains in the form of computer circuitry. It has also given the public those benefits in the form of cheap and flexible transport, warmer homes, appliances, communication, entertainment and more. Technology is the embodiment of progress. Technology has not only given advantage to businesses, but also to individuals. Having a mobile phone needs no explanation of its merits. As a result, we have come to love technology, and to rely on its incredible achievements to such an extent, that we truly believe that technology will help us out, but more importantly, we do not like to curtail it. We are actually in love with it.

Technology cannot be undone. What is invented cannot be uninvented. But can we slow it down? That is the question. Hilary Moss, 1989.

The creation of wealth has come a long way from the agrarian society to what it is today. Think about these economies of wealth creation:

• Hunter-gatherers: capital could not accumulate because one could own only what one could carry. Domesticated animals of burden (horse, ox, donkey, llama) changed this somewhat, allowing for some possessions. Exploitation of environment.
• Agrarian economy: Land + Labour creates Capital. Individuals cannot create more land, but nations can wage war for more. Land was owned by the ruling classes. Exploitation of land and land labour.
• Early Industrial economy: Capital + Labour creates New Capital. Exploitation of industrial labour.
• Robot economy: Capital + Technology (+ fossil fuel) creates New Capital. Technology is used to replace human fallability and to amplify every other human capability. Exploitation of fossil fuel.
• Financial Casino market: Debt + Growth creates Capital. Technology is used to speed transactions. Exploitation of capital.
• Technological economy: Capital + Technology (+ fossil fuel) + Labour creates New Capital + New Technology, hence its unstoppable growth. Technology is used for mass production while creating new technology as well. Technology workers become exploited.
• Knowledge economy: Capital + Knowledge (+ Technology) + Labour creates New Capital + New Knowledge. It could also grow exponentially. Technology is used to amplify human mental capacity. Knowledge becomes proprietary. Knowledge workers become exploited.

Service to another human being is seen as degrading, whereas service to a machine is not.
Hilary Moss, 1989.

Education causes one to leave the majority behind, disenfranchising them, and this is getting worse. Hilary Moss, 1989.

Technology has allowed us to live in cities, far from our origins, assuming a life style which estranges us from nature, and it isolated ourselves, by denying our sociable nature. As a result, it becomes impossible to understand, that even technology is limited by the envelope around us, which we call our planet, our environment.  Growing at an incredible rate (much faster than that of population), it behaves as if out of control, and indeed nobody is in control of it. It is a totally unmanaged resource, thriving in an environment of open access (anyone can use it), and fuelled by avarice (getting rich quickly) and fear (if I don't do it, someone else will, and I'll be out of business).
 

The very factors that made technology grow into an uncontrollable monster are all due to our own weaknesses. Hilary Moss, 1989.

• excessive optimism: blinded by the successes of technology, we fail to see, or undervalue its down side. Optimism is perhaps a tool for survival, but times have changed. We turn our heads away from unpleasantness. Technology has taken the dimension of a new faith, a new God.
• inaccurate thought: most people cannot cope with the complexity of thought necessary to understand their environment and the causes of deterioration. Our brains like to think emotionally, rather than logically. We fail to see the forest for its trees. When standing close to an immense object, one cannot see it. Likewise immense problems.
• unable to see slow changes in environment: children born today, accept the world they are born into, and will never know what it was like, even as recently as only twenty years ago. They will not be able to imagine their world twenty years from now either. Our urban environment changes so quickly that we cannot observe slow changes in the natural environment, which has been banned to far away places. When looking out of a moving train, one cannot see the cows move.
• unable to communicate: rapid change creates an intergenerational gap. The children born today will learn different things, have different values, which makes them seem a different species. This didn't use to be. It cannot be stopped, but it affects communication between people within one nation. The exponential increase in the amount of information, forces everyone to become a specialist in his own narrow field, unable to communicate on a high level with anyone else. Out of necessity, we are becoming strangers to one another. Those who are not capable of upskilling and adapting, become pariahs, falling by the wayside. Although we live next-door, we are unable to communicate with our neighbours. We send e-mails to our colleagues, only two rooms away.
• time delays between cause and effect: pollution happens slowly, and at no point alarms us. If there was a two year delay between eating a poisonous apple and dying from it, most of us would not be able to identify it as the cause of death. The cause of AIDS was not identified by its sufferers, but by careful scientific research (yet is still disputed). Time delays between cause and effect, manifest themselves as instability, like the business cycle of boom and bust, but also in the slower cycles of sharemarket crashes and depressions, and the much slower cycles of the rise and fall of civilisations. The threat of a world collapse of the entire financial system, which is intricately linked world-wide, is quite real.
• vested interests: the rich have been able to employ technology to enrich themselves further, but at an ever increasing rate as capital + technology + fossil fuel + labour creates new capital and new technology. The difference between the really wealthy and the really poor has become astronomical, expressed in nine digit figures! These people affect everything we do, from control of the media to control of politicians. Democracy has become a farce. Wars are fought for their interests. Soldiers die for their pockets. The powerless have become even less powerful.
• fear and greed: these are the main weapons of marketing and advertising, the mechanism by which the technologic monster multiplies. It creates new needs and makes us covet its new wares. It markets these needs globally, overrunning all cultural barriers. We live in fear of lagging behind our neighbours, having less or performing less well. Greed of those with technology, pushes it ahead in a seemingly endless expansion.
• affecting logical thought: in order to progress through the ranks of the many institutions we have created, one must be likeable, thus side with the established order and its thought and behaviours. Rebels have no chance. It renders thought and policy as inflexible as their institutions, unable to adapt fast enough. Always lagging behind, the majority viewpoint then is always wrong. Decisions based on this, are also wrong and need to be repealed at a later date. The ship of state flounders. Nature suffers. Logical thinking is outgunned by common opinion.

Living within a limited environment, our most hallowed freedom becomes less and less as the environment degrades. Floor Anthoni, 2001.

Moss, Dr Hillary (1984, 1989): The technologic trap, eight weapons of the Technologic Monster. Moana Press.

Why humans do things, is based on how they are motivated. Often irrational (emotional) motivation is strongest. In the summary below, I have tried to arrange our motivations in order of strength.

• survival: basic requirements must be met for survival. Without these, humans cannot express creativity or be happy.
• because of fear, anxiety: direct threat of death, pain, disease, insecurity, uncertainty, losing something. Most of us are cowards.
• because we need to: food, drink, sleep, sex, cleaning, friendship, bonding. Our gut causes pleasure.
• because we have to: inevitability of work, competition, military service, family care. Can't blame me for this.
• when we are rich: time is money. Money buys time-saving, but often wasteful practices. Driving instead of walking, flying instead of phoning.
• when we are poor: in order to survive in subsistence, own survival goes before the public good or the environment, resulting in their degradation.
• self-promotion, status: is often overvalued. For the sake of respect, people do strange and often dishonourable things.
• because it gives advantage: job status, money, power, social status, knowledge, exploitation. The more the better. Greed is good.
• we like to imitate: imitation is learning; it is instinctive and hard to avoid; we imitate at all levels of behaviour, including our neighbour's possessions.
• learning: knowledge gives advantage, better jobs, respect, wealth,
• comfort: gives a direct pleasant experience, often confused with happiness. Trappings of comfort are also used to express status.
• to shield us from nature and climate: rain, sun, ice, snow, wind, cold, heat, moisture,
• to remove offensive things: trees, pests, obstructions, roughness,
• to surround ourselves with softness: couches, padding, beds, shoes, comfort, paving.
• to move effortlessly: transport, cars, planes, roads
• to surround ourselves with conveniences: toilet, shower, running water, fridge, machines,
• to work less: machines, appliances, computers,
• recreation/ discovery: play and discovery give expression to inner happiness.
• because it's fun: play, active/passive entertainment, creativity, dancing, playing music. Fun sells well.
• because we're inquisitive: we want to know; gossiping; exploring; trial and error; Gossip sells extremely well.
• because we can: developing what we do best; neglecting our other potential; mindless action; creativity.
• political: to live amicably within a group while getting one's own way.
• to rule and divide: deceit, intrigue, grouping and re-grouping, forming alliances, bribing,
• to reciprocate (tit for tat): repay services; trading favours, revenge.
• to help others (altruism): own children, family, wife, community, the poor, the disabled. Altruism may conceal selfishness; doing the right thing for the wrong reason.
• nobility: using our noble abilities, which are our real humane ones.
• because it is the right thing to do: recycling, saving energy, reducing waste, co-operating, helping others, caution, saving.
• to exercise our higher qualities: love, care, compassion, sacrifice, self discipline, saving, postponement, sharing, co-operation, caution, providence.

A cynical view: we do what we do, because we know of nothing better to do with our time. People often waste their precious time and lives because they have never considered that they could do something better. But what people CAN do is limited by what they are CAPABLE of, which is determined by physical and mental ability, an outlook on life and the willingness to learn or change.

Another cynical view is that most people do not live at their optimal level of self-fulfilment. Many do not bother to extend themselves, to do the things that really matter and that are appreciated by others. They are living below their level of competence. Others have been seduced to overextend themselves, being promoted above their level of competence, by necessity or greed (salary, position, fame), or by unrealistic expectations (imitating movie stars, overestimating self).

• being in reasonable health: feeling physically capable; not under influence of disease, threats, or conflict.
• being free from physical wants: having slept well, eaten, etc. Food + clothing + shelter.
• having a sense of freedom: being oneself, an individual and feeling that one can do what one likes.
• giving and receiving love: to be loved, and to give love to others.
• experiencing a sense of purpose and achievement: doing work that inspires and being valued for what one does, having an outlook on a future, being good at it.

If all of the above is NORMAL human behaviour, why then has it led to problems? People's inner motivations have not changed for thousands of years. Is it a paradox? Can we save ourselves by changing our behaviour or is it something else that causes our problems? Why is it that our behaviour in the distant past, which is essentially the same as that of today, did not cause problems, but served us well to survive?

The answer must be sought in our use of technology, combined with our old world brain, which has not adapted to living with this newfound tool. In the main, technology has given us the power to transcend the limitations imposed by nature; limitations which kept the human race in balance with the carrying capacity of nature. Its main influences were:

• extending life: medical technology reduced mortality and extended life considerably, disabling our natural predators: diseases. Interestingly, hygiene has done more than any other technology. It has acted like a catalyst, being very cheap and propagating readily because it consists of knowledge only (and cheap technology like toilets and wells). Perhaps what we are looking for to save the world is something similar, environmental hygiene, a new discipline.
• extending every human capability considerably: walking/ going, doing, seeing, hearing, thinking, fighting ... (see the list of the things we do, above).
• providing more food: agricultural technology has had several flights of productivity. The green revolution made possible by the use of fertilisers, pesticides and tractors, doubled productivity or quadrupled it by allowing double-cropping.
• providing more material goods: technology and fossil fuel allowed mass production, while trade distributed these around the globe.
• making life more convenient: cars, aeroplanes, appliances, electricity, etc.

• we don't notice slow changes: it is said that if one wants to boil a frog, don't throw it into boiling water because it will jump out immediately. Put it in cold water instead, and heat it gradually. At no specific point will the frog now be alarmed sufficiently to jump. Similarly, humans are not alarmed by slow changes, neither are these at any time newsworthy.
• we haven't learnt from history: many civilisations before us have collapsed, yet we haven't learnt from them. The causes of their failures are not sufficiently made public, and more to the point, our world civilisation is following a seemingly different path.
• we are unable to foresee consequences: the future cannot be seen with our eyes. It can only be reasoned by logical minds while extending the present. Even then, it turns out different. Only very few people possess this ability. Their advice is not heeded, because they are a small minority, and most cannot comprehend their advice.
• our noble abilities have been languishing: we have grown used to employ our avarice and short outlook for self-gain. Successive generations and the economical systems have encouraged us to do so. In doing so, we have also created a society controlled by a technological monster which feeds on our avarice. Our noble abilities, which do not come naturally, have been languishing, but they are our only hope.

These abilities of our mind have never been needed in the course of the evolution of our species, so we do not possess them, or very weakly so. What is required is a completely new way of thinking which is unnatural to us. But it can be learnt. This web site aims to do so. However, for the vast majority, unable or unwilling to comprehend, a new 'religion' is needed in the form of environmental laws (which restrict our actions and movements), and environmental education and enticements (which encourage us to behave differently and proactively).

Derived from the important ones above, the following of our shortcomings, each contribute to our problems:

• we cannot see long term consequences.
• the technological world is changing too fast, blinding us for slow environmental changes.
• we are slow to adapt, resisting change.
• we are not interested.
• we have never done it before.
• we confuse urgency with magnitude.
• we are paralysed by a flood of contradicting opinions.
• there's no room or time for education.
• we are running out of time.
• our human resources are limited.
• we don't recognise our uniqueness.
• we apply other people's medicines & recipes.
• we treat symptoms rather than causes; wall-paper over the cracks; stick plasters on.
• we are happy with feel-good decisions, even though these won't help.
• we think that it is better to do something than nothing at all, and settle for trivial solutions, which then stand in the way of better ones.

Ornstein, Robert and Paul Ehrlich: New World, new mind. Changing the way we think about our future. 1989. Methuen London.
Moss, Hilary: The technology trap. The eight weapons of the Technological Monster. Moana Press, 1989.

• falsifying data by hiding or omitting, and by substituting with other data, and by making undocumented and unwarranted 'corrections'.
• refusing data to other scientist, requested through Freedom Of Information legislation, or as part of the acceptance to publish in scientific journals.
• hi-jacking scientific journals by blackmailing and by placing cronies in editorial boards.
• hi-jacking the peer-review process by forming a close-knit group of like-minded peer reviewers and by peer-reviewing one another's papers
• bullying opponents and critics by rejecting their papers from the journals they hi-jacked.
• lying to the public, the media and governments, even while under oath.
• falsely editing the IPCC reports and summaries for decisionmakers and by ignoring complaints of such.

• for money and funding: the IPCC has been endowed with many BILLIONS of dollars annually, which it disperses to 'scientific' groups willing to promote the scare of global warming. It has corrupted untold many scientists and their institutions.
• because they believed in their (computer) predictions of calamitous consequences like runaway temperatures, rising sea levels, species extinctions, disease, famine and much more. Their firmly held beliefs suppressed their cautious objectivity.
• the scare was used to move society to become more sustainable.
• they were afraid that we would run out of fossil fuels ('peak oil') and should embrace green power from wind, sun and tides.
• they were afraid of nuclear power because that could change the balance of imperial power globally.
• the scare was used to shift wealth from developed nations to developing nations in a big way.
• the scare was useful to those who want one world government such that the whole world can be controlled by corrupting only a few politicians. There would be an energy tax on every person.
• the scare was used to start emissons trading, the biggest financial scam ever, including futures on carbon credits - the creation of the biggest financial bubble imaginable. Huge sums and profits are involved.

• economics: the whole edifice of economics came tumbling down after French students exposed it for what it was: a scam to justify the rich becoming richer while the poor become poorer, while also stealing the wealth of nations. None of present-day economics is directed at real-world problems such as limits to resources, inequality, environment and so on.
• nuclear power and nuclear weapons: the whole scientific debate is corrupted by politics of power.
• health and medical science: entirely controlled and corrupted by the giant pharmaceutical corporations who create health scares such as chicken flu, SARS, swine flu and more, while being totally disinterested in the diseases of the poor. Scams are also found in AIDS, prion disease, and many more.
• whaling: the whole whaling debate has been hi-jacked by green environmentalists who do not care about facts.
• fishing: for decades fishing has been tightly controlled by fisheries scientists. Even so, the fish disappeared. Much of the science now exist to white-wash the mistakes of scientists who refuse to accept that the sea does not work as expected. Fisheries science is highly corrupted and politicised.
• marine conservation: firmly held beliefs have supplanted scientific objectivity. Many examples found on the Seafriends web site. See myths and fallacies.
• ocean acidification: based on school chemistry, it is feared that the seas will become acidified by rising CO2 levels, resulting in disastrous consequences for marine species, particularly corals and plankton. Read our extensive rebuttal and step-by-step analysis of ocean acidification.
• and so on . . .

"...we need to get some broad based support, to capture the public's imagination.... So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements and make little mention of any doubts.... Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest." Stanford Professor Stephen Schneider of the climate fraud gang.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC: http://www.ipcc.ch/, the climate fraud gang: realclimate,
Read more about climategate from the skeptics: climate depot, Watts up with that, climategate USA, climategate NL, climateaudit, CO2science, EUreferendum,

Thus has arisen the idea that perhaps our world view is wrong. We have placed God above Man, and Nature at the bottom, to be plundered and controlled by him. God has given Man inalienable human rights. Based on this world view, we have modelled our society: our governments, laws and statutes. The Constitution is the apex of all. It is the well-known pyramid world view we are so used to, that we don't realise it has permeated all our thinking and doing, and that it has even prevented us from doubting whether it is right. But it is strange that Man has rights without corresponding responsibilities, for everywhere else in nature, this is a balanced exchange.

Genesis 1:26. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Worldview: a coherent set of assumptions about how one's environment functions. It comprises belief systems and views, and provides sense and meaning to those members of any society who adhere to its tenets. A worldview is thus both an explanation and interpretation of the world, and involves the application of this view of life. It is seated in a specific time and cultural setting as defined by education, beliefs and attitudes. It also provides a framework for institutional governance and closure for the prevailing paradigm, sifting the data stream for that which can be interpreted according to accepted concepts.
It therefore follows that knowledge and knowing are not neutral: they are the products of the knower and the culture of which the knower is a part. (Barry Tapp & Ljubica Mamula-Stojnic, 2001)

But if all we are, and all we do, ultimately depends on nature, and being constrained by it, surely nature must stand above all else. Now that the amount of unaltered environment is diminishing below half of the total, and nature's services are diminishing accordingly, while the human population is yet to double in size, we are ever more painfully reminded of this truth. It leads to a refreshingly new and more accurate world view, that of placing Nature at the top and Man below it. If necessary, religion or spirituality below that.
Thus Nature's sustainability forms the Constitution, and human rights are given in return for responsibilities towards Nature. Finally human rights are balanced by human responsibilities, the way it should be! These responsibilities require humans to act proactively, which prohibitive law cannot do.

The new world view requires us to alter our laws, placing sustainability at the top and all else below it. It follows the model of nature, and it makes sense. It also requires us to change the way we are governed, and with it world government. No small task indeed, but this will make the future look brighter, while enabling us to tackle environmental problems at their roots.

Ironically, primitive natural peoples have always had this world view. Their spirits were related to nature, and these demanded responsibilities. At some time, the monotheistic religions changed all that. (see diagram)

The world view and political mind-sets have always been of influence on what we do, often decisively so. It pays to remember that not just our superiority over nature has driven us to control it, but also the way the majority, or our leaders thought:

• Anxiety of security has powered the war machine. Only by being technologically superior to our adversaries, will they be refrained from pulling the trigger first. It has led to the Cold War and the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), to assure peace. This race for better war technology has led to improved technological outcomes for society, but at a high (environmental) cost, while producing more anxiety. The race for economic might fits this pattern too.
• The fear of being left behind while other nations join the lolly scramble towards prosperity, has hastened many grand projects, which were regretted later, such as dams, irrigation works, cutting native forests for timber, slave-labour Maquiladoras, Industrial Tigers, subsidised fishing and more.
• The dogma of economic growth for fear of economic stagnation, deflation, recession and depression. Economic growth has also been used to finance (in hope) burgeoning public debt, and to meet the cost of housing, plumbing, electricity of growing populations. More jobs means higher tax revenue.
• The self-aggrandizement of rulers, who aim to gain political or private capital, or power from technological progress. Particularly favouring large projects, rulers have also been a major factor driving technology forward and often in serious conflict with nature.
• Authoritarian governments often oversold the benefits of technology, while downplaying their ill effects, often preventing access to environmentally sensitive information. In the name of progress, dangerous shortcuts were taken, resulting in high risk of disease and pollution of the environment. Offending businesses were protected. Corruption was rife.

When a fire begins, it can easily be extinguished with a single blanket, but when it becomes for all to see, it can no longer be contained. Likewise our problems. Floor Anthoni

In this conclusion one would expect a recipe for a way out of our predicament, but there is no single remedy. The predicament we are in has been caused not by the actions of a few large operators, but by the tyranny of myriad small decisions. The whole purpose of this web site is to give you the understanding and the tools to arrive at your own solutions. Likewise, this article, by critically analysing the most important components of our actions, should give you the knowledge to find your own contribution and to improve yourself.

In its generality, this article should also help you to improve your life, your future, your career, your relationships, your actions, your business, your organisation, your country. Read it again and read between the lines how it affects you personally. Print it out and mark the items that lie within your grasp, the ones you can do yourself, and remember that nobody will be able to change everything. What society needs to do is to change the balance of our actions, to maximise what we do right and to minimise what we do wrong.

If you are a (religious) leader, you may find inspiration from the new direction you may discover. Your example will be followed by many. Religion is important in the lives of many. History has shown that it provided a strategy for survival. However, times have changed, whereas religion has not. The time has come to give Nature the reverence it deserves, with obligations to it in return for our human rights. This article should challenge you to preach a new strategy of survival, without giving up what is good about what you believe in.

The main conclusion is that our inherited strategies for survival have not been able to evolve quickly enough for us to survive in the world of the future. They have indeed been the very cause of our problems. Business as usual, will therefore certainly lead us to self destruction. A new survival instinct is needed, and this could well be environmental hygiene.

hygiene (Gk: hygies= healthy; tekhnê= art; hygienê= art of health) a set of principles of maintaining health. Conditions or practices conducive to maintaining health. Sanitary science.
Hygiene is not only the knowledge to stay healthy but proactive prevention leading to health. In the history of Man, it has been the singlemost effective remedy for longer and happier lives. It has changed the world more than any other technology, and it cost very little. It is taught like any other form of knowledge, and by imitation. It can grow and multiply using the same advances that made science great.

People will be more likely to conform if the cost of doing so is acceptable. It requires us to accept the 80/20 strategy, where 80% improvement can be attained at 20% of the cost. Laws and regulations always aim for 100/100, full compliance at the full cost. Thus laws and regulations are not suitable for environmental hygiene. Education is.

Proactive prevention is also needed for other important salvage tools:

• media hygiene: protecting our communication media to broadcast the truth, and to give more room to important matters, and to make room for education in environmental hygiene, and so on.
• political hygiene: to protect our nation from wrong decisions inspired by lust for power, hidden agendas, insufficient consultation, corruption, stupidity and so on. Likewise for world government institutions.
• scientific hygiene: protecting our knowledge base from fallacies, myths and untruths. Promoting free access to all scientific information. Making science available to many by analysing, collecting, translating, simplifying and rewriting. But it also consists of mind hygiene, preventing fallacies and untruths from taking hold inside our thoughts and beliefs.
• education hygiene: endeavouring to make education a rewarding experience, worthy of life-long pursuit. Preventing people from being turned off from learning. Preventing people being overloaded with useless facts and conflicting messages.
• internet hygiene: protecting this fantastic medium from abuse, self-interest, deceit and dishonesty, while promoting its use for co-operation, sharing and learning. Preventing junk mail, fraud, defrauding schemes, etc.

What's new?