What is "ecomodernism"

Ecomodernism is the strain of environmental philosophy which argues that humans can protect non-human nature by using technology to "decouple" anthropogenic impacts from the natural world. Ecomodernism is an emergent school of thought from many environmentalist scholars, critics, philosophers, and activists. In their 2015 manifesto, 18 self-professed ecomodernists—including scholars from the Breakthrough Institute, Harvard University, Jadavpur University, and the Long Now Foundation—defined their philosophy as such:

"...we affirm one long-standing environmental ideal, that humanity must shrink its impacts on the environment to make more room for nature, while we reject another, that human societies must harmonize with nature to avoid economic and ecological collapse."

Ecomodernism explicitly embraces substituting energy, technology, and synthetic solutions for natural ecological services. Among other things, ecomodernists embrace agricultural intensification, genetically modified and synthetic foods, desalination and waste recycling, urbanization, and substituting denser energy fuels for less dense fuels (e.g. substituting coal for wood and, ultimately, getting all energy from progressively lower carbon technologies such as nuclear power and advanced renewables). Key among the goals of an ecomodern environmental ethic is the use of technology to intensify human activity and make more room for wild nature.

Ecomodernism emerged from various debates, including the debate over when homo sapiens became a dominant force acting on Earth's ecosystems (proposed start-dates to the so-called Anthropocene range from the advent of agriculture 10,000 years ago to the invention of atomic weapons in the 20th century). Other debates that form the foundation of ecomodernism include how best to protect natural environments, how to accelerate decarbonization to mitigate climate change, and how to accelerate the economic and social development of the world's poor.

In these debates, ecomodernism distinguishes itself from other schools of thought, including sustainable development, ecological economics, degrowth or the steady-state economy, population reduction, laissez-faire economics, the "soft energy" path, and central planning. Ecomodernism considers many of its core ideologies borrowed from American pragmatism, political ecology, evolutionary economics, and modernism.