Comments on: Beyond Sustainability

Beyond Sustainability

MetaMonkey — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 06:31:00 -0800

Designing the Next Industrial Revolution [google video], an inspiring talk by William McDonough on design and ecology, beyond sustainability. Starts a little slow, but builds a powerful vision of a possible future. [transcript, v i a, see also]

By: MetaMonkey

MetaMonkey — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 10:57:37 -0800

(bit of a slow burner, this one)

By: hoskala

hoskala — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 12:28:01 -0800

Very powerful speech. Thanks for the link.

By: kjell

kjell — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 17:59:38 -0800

amazing.

By: String

String — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 01:36:23 -0800

I found some of his ideas quite inspiring, but McDonough himself comes across with an odd mixture of arrogance and naiivete. He bashes the first Industrial Revolution for all its unintended consequences (that somehow James Watt et al should have known about), yet he seems to believe his work will have none. Then there are statements such as perceiving the state as "the Guardian". You can tell Dubya hadn't been in office long when this talk was given.

By: hoskala

hoskala — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 10:19:03 -0800

He bashes the first Industrial Revolution for all its unintended consequences (that somehow James Watt et al should have known about), yet he seems to believe his work will have none. True, but he considers the possibility, so he is trying to minimize the effect his designs have on future generations. Quite unlike Ford et al. I think he wasn't trying to blame the (already) dead generations for not taking an action. He was blaming us, the current population that really should know better. His guardian model seems utopian. But in a way we already have that guardian in place, the nation state. The main problem in a global market economy is that regulations on a national scale are uneffective; they only shift pollution, they don't prevent it thus effectively making the competitive field grossly uneven for responsible companies. And it seems that this unnfortunate state of business isn't very close to changing any time soon. Kyoto anyone?