Ethics and extinction: Micro versus macro appropriate technology

Abstract

Ethical theory and technology practice raise two primary questions. First, what are the ethical principles driving sustainable appropriate technology? Second, what are the viable applications of those principles with respect to alternative appropriate technologies? The hypothesis of this study is that the earth is experiencing the current and sixth mass extinction. Our methodology is first to review ethical principles that address this problem and then to examine their consequences in the field of renewable energy technologies. A primary engine driving mass extinction is current modes of energy production. Unless energy is readily and cheaply available, humans will struggle to form a single economic community that can guarantee the universal rights embodied in the United Nations Declarations of Universal Human Rights. Unfortunately, Micro-Appropriate Technology (AT) applications cannot presently replace the current carbon-based global energy system. This paper analyzes the ethical potential of Macro Photo-Voltaic and Concentrating Solar Power AT systems. Our conclusion argues that the world's collective nations must undertake a global solar “Manhattan Project” to arrest the sixth mass extinction and overcome the misery of billions in the Global South through ethical sustainable development.

Keywords:

• concentrating solar power
• ethics
• mass extinction
• micro/macro appropriate technology
• scarcity
• sustainable development

JEL classification:

• O14
• Q20