How can I be an environmentalist and still love and promote technology after COVID?

This blog has been brewing for several years. As I’m locked down in rural Essex (UK), the global pandemic brings a sense of urgency to my dilemma. The whole world had never just stopped before, in our lifetimes. As I write, I’m fortunate not to have been personally affected by the tragedy of the loss of life, for which I am very grateful.

As many have noted, the global situation is also an opportunity for us to question the very structure of our societies. As candidly as possible. Clean air, unpolluted skies, strangers looking after each other, have been the few positive features of this pandemic. But above all, it has become apparent that we could afford to pay for saving the planet if we chose to. Some things have turned out to be more important than GDP and short-term economic growth.

Many of our mainstream politicians are clamouring for us to get back to where we were as quickly as possible. But society as a whole might no longer want that.

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What are the personal questions, for those of us who love technology and whose chosen career is to promote it? Is now the right time to reposition ourselves and to reconcile our aspirations with our actions? Let’s call this the Technology Enthusiast’s Environmental Dilemma or TEE-dilemma.

In this personal post, I’ll attempt to address the issue of making peace with my bewildered…