Thomas Homer-Dixon: Exploring the climate ''mindscape''

摘要

Canadian political scientist Thomas Homer-Dixon explains why human civilization must make a transitionnfrom fossil fuels to low-carbon energy sources裯ot just because of climate concerns but also because conventionalnoil is declining in production and becoming increasingly difficult to extract. He describes the politicalnclimate in Canada, where conversation about global warming補nd especially about the oil sands innAlberta裪s now widely viewed as unpatriotic and pointless. Homer-Dixon envisions a potential wake-up callnto humanity in the form of a climate shock to global food-production systems, triggered by extreme weathernevents, and he sees increasing evidence for a connection between environmental stresses and civil conflicts.nBulletin of the Atomic Scientistsn68(3) 1–9n! The Author(s) 2012nReprints and permissions:nsagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.navnDOI: 10.1177/0096340212444868nhttp://thebulletin.sagepub.comnDownloaded from bos.sagepub.com at Institute of Scientific & Technical Information of China on May 7, 2012nHe calls for accelerated research on energy technologies, such as ultra-deep geothermal power, and for newnresearch on how to restructure economies and social institutions. According to Homer-Dixon, the climatenchange problem might ultimately reside as much in our heads as in the external world. His latest work focusesnon mapping the òmindscape,ó a virtual space within which most of the world誷 people are clustered in a fewnideologically polarized groups. Vast, unexplored regions of the mindscape, he says, may offer new ways ofnthinking about problems such as climate change and new ways of living together successfully in the future.