Pacific Surfliner

Still green after the winter rains, I have the rolling hills of Southern California on my left side and the ocean on my right as Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner makes it way down towards San Diego. Sitting on the upper level I spent an extra 10 USD to travel in business class for this my first American train journey outside the Northeast Corridor and as you can see from the picture above I have been amply rewarded with incredible views. Normally, California is synonymous with winding coastal drives and interstate insanity along the I-5 but this time it felt good to ditch the rental car universe and instead spend the time contemplating what lies ahead.

Like in Vegas back in 2015, I fear going into these engagements, especially as I too can see the dark side of capitalism and the liberal social order. But in a world of shades and relative balances, the other side of the argument has to be heard as well. As for that, I am almost done revising my book chapter in response to the reviewer feedback.

How many times have I not read that “technological innovation without a real change in humanity’s way of thinking and acting in relation to nature could only make things worse”? As I pass San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant which used to provide a stable baseload supply of more than 2000 MW of carbon-free electricity and which has now been largely replaced by fossil gas, I feel more certain than ever that this kind of ethical absolutism is wrong-headed and that, if there is to be any hope of ecological salvation, it rather depends on our willingness and courage to see modernity through while accepting that there will always be different values and norm systems.