210
22.2 The Philosophy and Computational Ecology
of a Single Road
Issues of mobility, population pressure, development, and technology innovation
need not equate with the potential depredation of utterly sanctified places like
Sakteng, or the build-up of microplastics in the ocean, although to date that has been
the predictable correlation. Our hearts sank when we heard about the ambitious road
being constructed into Sakteng—just as we were alarmed, and then distraught,
decades ago when the TransAmazonian Highway began construction, or, as earlier
referenced, when oil drilling began in Yasuní. This has been the story of civilization,
whether by roadbuilding, the erection of barbwire fencing, the conquest of civilizations by endogenous cultures, Old Worlds, New Worlds, or dissemination of pesticides like dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) that made for Rachel Carson’s
Silent Spring.
Conversely, we see technology, as applied to manufacturing alternatives to meat
and fish for human consumers, as a long-overdue and—we would like to hope—
predictable evolution of the human spirit. The Economist magazine labeled 2019 the
“Year of the Vegan,” stating, “Fully a quarter of 25- to 34-year-old Americans say
they are vegans or vegetarians”
14
.
14 See “First Vehicles Reach Sakteng,” KuenselOnline, February 4, 2019, by Younte Tshedup,
http://www.kuenselonline.com/first-vehicles-reach-sakteng/. Accessed April 17, 2019.
Fig. 22.3 Leisurely Yak in Sakteng. (Photo © M.C.Tobias)
22 Sakteng
22.2 The Philosophy and Computational Ecology
of a Single Road
Issues of mobility, population pressure, development, and technology innovation
need not equate with the potential depredation of utterly sanctified places like
Sakteng, or the build-up of microplastics in the ocean, although to date that has been
the predictable correlation. Our hearts sank when we heard about the ambitious road
being constructed into Sakteng—just as we were alarmed, and then distraught,
decades ago when the TransAmazonian Highway began construction, or, as earlier
referenced, when oil drilling began in Yasuní. This has been the story of civilization,
whether by roadbuilding, the erection of barbwire fencing, the conquest of civilizations by endogenous cultures, Old Worlds, New Worlds, or dissemination of pesticides like dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) that made for Rachel Carson’s
Silent Spring.
Conversely, we see technology, as applied to manufacturing alternatives to meat
and fish for human consumers, as a long-overdue and—we would like to hope—
predictable evolution of the human spirit. The Economist magazine labeled 2019 the
“Year of the Vegan,” stating, “Fully a quarter of 25- to 34-year-old Americans say
they are vegans or vegetarians”
14
.
14 See “First Vehicles Reach Sakteng,” KuenselOnline, February 4, 2019, by Younte Tshedup,
http://www.kuenselonline.com/first-vehicles-reach-sakteng/. Accessed April 17, 2019.
Fig. 22.3 Leisurely Yak in Sakteng. (Photo © M.C.Tobias)
22 Sakteng