No one "needs" to--there IS such a thing as a middle ground here. The main problem in your thinking is that a lot of the damage from industrialization has already happened. We industrialized in a completely irresponsible fashion, and permanently scarred the earth. As a result, however, people are living more longer, more comfortable lives. If we manage to reduce our numbers down to the one million or so range and discard our old harmful technology, then the earth is still permanently scarred and we don't have anything to show for it. As scientific knowledge increases, however, we're finding safer ways to do what we've been doing. Will we find safe enough ways fast enough? I don't know. But I'm a stubborn person, and I refuse to believe that we destroyed countless cultures, took hundreds of millions of lives, condemned a few billion more to poverty and squalor, and did irreparable harm to the environment in vain. I think it's ridiculous to throw away all hope of ever getting this whole thiing to work on the slim chance that what you're asking for could actually ever work.
it could work. we would just have to learn to be hunter gatherers again.
No one "needs" to--there IS such a thing as a middle ground here. The main problem in your thinking is that a lot of the damage from industrialization has already happened. We industrialized in a completely irresponsible fashion, and permanently scarred the earth. As a result, however, people are living more longer, more comfortable lives. If we manage to reduce our numbers down to the one million or so range and discard our old harmful technology, then the earth is still permanently scarred and we don't have anything to show for it. As scientific knowledge increases, however, we're finding safer ways to do what we've been doing. Will we find safe enough ways fast enough? I don't know. But I'm a stubborn person, and I refuse to believe that we destroyed countless cultures, took hundreds of millions of lives, condemned a few billion more to poverty and squalor, and did irreparable harm to the environment in vain. I think it's ridiculous to throw away all hope of ever getting this whole thiing to work on the slim chance that what you're asking for could actually ever work.