RE: Critique on Amory Lovins / RMI

[Bram Büscher]

Title: RE: Critique on Amory Lovins / RMI

Thanks for this clarification Matthew. Perhaps I was too quick in my assertion, but why I felt especially uncomfortable with the way in which Lovins presented (as such interesting) technological innovations, was that it actually obfuscates wider political and social dynamics that have time and again proven that technological progress in itself is not THE answer to environmental and/or developmental problems. In a neoliberal context where the power of being able to sell your story often seems to grant it certain legitimacy, criticizing and nuancing this seems especially important.

Best,
Bram


-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Paterson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Mon 25/02/2008 03:43
To: willett; Bram Büscher
Cc: Global Environmental Education
Subject: Re: Critique on Amory Lovins / RMI

Following what Willett says, however, is that the earlier books, I think of
Soft Energy Paths in particular, were clear that the technological choices
about energy were absolutely political and social. Choosing a soft energy
future was also choosing a decentralised, potentially libertarian, society,
while hard energy technoloies necessitated massive security apparatuses and
so on. This is different to thinking through the social obstacles to the
uptake of new technologies, admittedly, but at least in his earlier
incarnations, there was this recognition of technology as social, before he
got his free-market boosterism somewhere in the 1980s.

Mat

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Matthew Paterson
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From: willett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:39:59 -0500
To: Bram Büscher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: Global Environmental Education <gep-ed@listserve1.allegheny.edu>
Subject: Re: Critique on Amory Lovins / RMI

Two decades ago, Denton Morrison published a couple of aritlces in the
sociological literatuares laying out all of Lovin's social science
assertions found in earlier books.  He wasn't really critical but it was
clear that even the earlier work had huge numbers of unproven assertions
about society, combined with a pretty good (if optimistic) analysis of
emerging technologies.   I haven't loooked for anything more recent.

Willett Kempton

On 24 Feb 2008, at 15:22, Bram Büscher wrote:

> 
> 
>
> Dear All,
> 
>  I was at the Berlin conference of the Human Dimensions of Global Change
> yesterday and attended a (video conference) presentation by dr. Amory Lovins
> of the Rocky Mountain institute. I have seen few people so bluntly reduce all
> environmental problems (and the politics around it) to technological fetishes
> (apparently accessible to all?).
> 
>  He also advocated another book of his and colleagues entitled 'Natural
> Capitalism' that again combines all the good and the ugly into a 'profitable'
> 'win-win' mix for all of humankind and nature... On the website of the book
> (natcap.org) it says that they want to publish cheers and jeers, but that 'so
> far, the book has received almost pure praise and that frankly, this is a bit
> embarrassing'.
> 
>  Now, personally, I cannot imagine this, and wonder whether anybody on the
> list has some suggestions for critical literature/articles. Basically, I'm
> looking for some more practical armour in the face of people who so
> optimistically go about selling such grand illusions.
> 
>  Thanks,
> 
>  Bram
> 
> 
>  
> 
>