Transitions to a greener world

Book by Elisa Grindale


FOREWORD

The Earth has long provided every living being with what it needed to survive. Our ancestors saw it as a nurturing mother, and this instinctive relationship drove them to take care of it. They knew, without theory or scientific model, that resources were not infinite and that the slightest mistake could disrupt a fragile balance.

Today, this bond has weakened. We move forward with less caution, sometimes with indifference, as if the riches of the planet were owed to us and were inexhaustible. How could we have strayed so far from this elementary awareness? Despite our intellectual progress, despite repeated warnings, we have too often chosen blindness. We have allowed the idea to take root that the announced disasters were just exaggerations or that technology would eventually fix everything.

The objective of this work is to revisit these choices, to examine with lucidity what our actions have produced—the worst as well as the best—in order to better understand the path that lies ahead of us. It is not about condemning but about reflecting. To recognize our mistakes in order to better overcome them. To find a way of inhabiting the world that is sustainable, responsible, and respectful of life.

Some imagine that artificial intelligence will be able to solve what humanity has not been able to master. It has the capacity for certain areas: calculation, analysis, and pattern detection. But it remains limited where humans are irreplaceable: creativity, sensitivity, fairness, and deep understanding of the consequences of our choices. AI can assist, illuminate, and accelerate—but it cannot think for us.

The risks it carries are real: security drifts, manipulations, disinformation, human rights violations, and weakening of our own cognitive abilities. The real danger lies not in the tool itself, but in how we use it, in how it will influence our behaviors and our relationship with the world.

This book is an invitation to face what we have become and to imagine together what we could become again.