Regime Change Now
A few days ago, I was watching a little bit of television (seems to be a continuing theme in my life)... I was listening to a pundit talk about government expenditures and why they didn’t match with what he viewed as the proper priorities. As an example of this, he cited space research. I’ll paraphrase him here:
“I mean, the market could use a shot in the arm right now to keep some companies afloat. The government seems more concerned about funding a new space shuttle design and sending rovers to Mars than it does about bailing out General Motors!”
The program had a studio audience, and when he said this to the anchor, the audience broke into thunderous applause. Sometimes I forget just how differently I see the world than do other people. Could it be that this fellow, and all of the audience members, failed to recognize the fundamental analogy that describes the Earth?
The Earth is a like a lifeboat, afloat in a gigantic ocean. Humanity clings to life by consuming the precious supplies aboard the raft, but if we fall off, we will surely die. At first, there were so many resources on board the raft that we behaved like a child given their first allowance payment. We ate, drank, and made merry without regard for how quickly we consumed.
But now, there are so many of us that we can no longer consume resources in the manner we once did. Some of us see this problem. Other people do not. If we are ruled by those who continue to suppose that we can consume and consume without regard for the rapidly depleting resources all of the members of the life raft will starve to death while floating in the endless void.
Recently, I was reading a book on biodiversity by noted biologist E.O. Wilson. Wilson pointed out a fact which startled me. Every person on the planet uses up a certain amount of land and water. Some is used for our housing. Some to grow an individual’s share of food. Some to dispose of that individual’s waste. Others to mine an individuals share of metals to manufacture into that person’s share of objects. If an American wished for all people on the planet living today to have the same type of lifestyle Americans take for granted, we would need slightly more than 4 planet Earths to do so. And the population of Earth is expected to reach 10 billion (3.5 billion more people than are alive now) by the year 2050. The Earth simply does not have enough resources to sustain humanity as some believe.
Much more dangerous, however, are those who not only insist on voraciously consuming, but insist on consuming resources using methods which endanger the raft in another way. There are still those, like our President, that deny the existence of global warming, and feel no reason to reduce American profits simply because some people see a danger in playing with steak knives in the middle of our rubber raft. Issues like loss of biodiversity, the loss of forest-lands, and the wholesale pollution of our waterways and oceans have ramifications which scientists are predicting may be more dangerous than we know. In China, developing industrial systems are dumping chemical by-products into rivers instead of safely disposing of them. China has over 50,000 km of rivers, but at the current time, more than 80% of China’s rivers are so polluted as to no longer support living fish.
When I read that, it reminded me of a picture I had seen in one of my National Geographic magazines a few years back. The story in the magazine had been about over-pollution in China, and the field reporter had interviewed an old Chinese man who ran a laundry service. He had, for years, washed his customers’ clothing in the river, but had to give up his livelihood after a chemical plant had moved in upstream. He was afraid to have his face captured on film for fear of reprisals, but allowed his hands to be photographed instead. His hands, as a result of contact with the river water, were blistered and peeling, with large, angry red welts, and cracks that ran so deep you were surprised you didn’t see white flecks of bone.
There is more behind the exploration of space than idle curiosity. We are looking for a second raft. Maybe we won’t find one as good as the one we are on now, but we might find something. If we managed to put a colony on Mars which could, in a self-sustaining way, support 100 million people, oughtn’t we to try?
Some say that lifeboat mentalities can justify almost anything. In a very real way, they are right. At the moment, we are ruled by a President whose administration insists despite all evidence to the contrary, that we have an unlimited supply of resources, that conserving those resources is not necessary, and that it is perfectly acceptable to endanger everyone on the raft simply to grab a larger share of the already limited resources.
How should we deal with the President and his greedy administration and corporate friends? How would you deal with the fellow on a life-raft who refuses to ration the resources while gobbling down more than his fair share?
At some point, we need to stop being cowards and demand that our scant resources be preserved and only used in a responsible manner. Or else.
“I mean, the market could use a shot in the arm right now to keep some companies afloat. The government seems more concerned about funding a new space shuttle design and sending rovers to Mars than it does about bailing out General Motors!”
The program had a studio audience, and when he said this to the anchor, the audience broke into thunderous applause. Sometimes I forget just how differently I see the world than do other people. Could it be that this fellow, and all of the audience members, failed to recognize the fundamental analogy that describes the Earth?
The Earth is a like a lifeboat, afloat in a gigantic ocean. Humanity clings to life by consuming the precious supplies aboard the raft, but if we fall off, we will surely die. At first, there were so many resources on board the raft that we behaved like a child given their first allowance payment. We ate, drank, and made merry without regard for how quickly we consumed.
But now, there are so many of us that we can no longer consume resources in the manner we once did. Some of us see this problem. Other people do not. If we are ruled by those who continue to suppose that we can consume and consume without regard for the rapidly depleting resources all of the members of the life raft will starve to death while floating in the endless void.
Recently, I was reading a book on biodiversity by noted biologist E.O. Wilson. Wilson pointed out a fact which startled me. Every person on the planet uses up a certain amount of land and water. Some is used for our housing. Some to grow an individual’s share of food. Some to dispose of that individual’s waste. Others to mine an individuals share of metals to manufacture into that person’s share of objects. If an American wished for all people on the planet living today to have the same type of lifestyle Americans take for granted, we would need slightly more than 4 planet Earths to do so. And the population of Earth is expected to reach 10 billion (3.5 billion more people than are alive now) by the year 2050. The Earth simply does not have enough resources to sustain humanity as some believe.
Much more dangerous, however, are those who not only insist on voraciously consuming, but insist on consuming resources using methods which endanger the raft in another way. There are still those, like our President, that deny the existence of global warming, and feel no reason to reduce American profits simply because some people see a danger in playing with steak knives in the middle of our rubber raft. Issues like loss of biodiversity, the loss of forest-lands, and the wholesale pollution of our waterways and oceans have ramifications which scientists are predicting may be more dangerous than we know. In China, developing industrial systems are dumping chemical by-products into rivers instead of safely disposing of them. China has over 50,000 km of rivers, but at the current time, more than 80% of China’s rivers are so polluted as to no longer support living fish.
When I read that, it reminded me of a picture I had seen in one of my National Geographic magazines a few years back. The story in the magazine had been about over-pollution in China, and the field reporter had interviewed an old Chinese man who ran a laundry service. He had, for years, washed his customers’ clothing in the river, but had to give up his livelihood after a chemical plant had moved in upstream. He was afraid to have his face captured on film for fear of reprisals, but allowed his hands to be photographed instead. His hands, as a result of contact with the river water, were blistered and peeling, with large, angry red welts, and cracks that ran so deep you were surprised you didn’t see white flecks of bone.
There is more behind the exploration of space than idle curiosity. We are looking for a second raft. Maybe we won’t find one as good as the one we are on now, but we might find something. If we managed to put a colony on Mars which could, in a self-sustaining way, support 100 million people, oughtn’t we to try?
Some say that lifeboat mentalities can justify almost anything. In a very real way, they are right. At the moment, we are ruled by a President whose administration insists despite all evidence to the contrary, that we have an unlimited supply of resources, that conserving those resources is not necessary, and that it is perfectly acceptable to endanger everyone on the raft simply to grab a larger share of the already limited resources.
How should we deal with the President and his greedy administration and corporate friends? How would you deal with the fellow on a life-raft who refuses to ration the resources while gobbling down more than his fair share?
At some point, we need to stop being cowards and demand that our scant resources be preserved and only used in a responsible manner. Or else.
posted by The Academian | 11:33 AM
2 Comments:
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