ScubaTribe

Does any one still truly still believe that this is not happening? If so I credit the American conglomerates and associated propoganda engines with a job well done.

Kudos boys but maybe it was a bit extreme for a buck eh?

To be, or not to be? Could Shakespeare have known that the lines he wrote down so many years ago would be a question we would face someday as a race?

At the current pace of population growth and natural resource use, we have, as a species, about another 50 to 100 years before we reach the critical point and either starve ourselves to death, or make the environment totally unlivable for our kind and many others. For those of you concerned about Mother earth, don’t worry, she will continue spinning quite happily on through the void with or without us.

I don’t want to sound like a pessimist but I have to concede, it does look pretty grim. Several choices remain to us of course. We can somehow return to a sort of harmony with the natural environment, taking only what we need and returning its equivalent to the system while reducing our population. We can get the hell out of here and do something damaging somewhere else. Finally, we can simply cease to exist. All signs say we cannot continue for much longer at our present pace so therefore the ultimate question is upon us. To be, or not to be?

Ceasing to exist isn’t the most favorable choice but quite likely if something major doesn’t change. Extinction of species happens everyday and the rate is increasing at an alarming pace. What makes us so special that we can avoid the fate of the Dodo bird or passenger pigeon? Not much in reality, infectious diseases are on the rise and getting ever more resistant to our efforts to eradicate them. Our food supply, both land and sea based is quickly becoming weaker with each genetic advancement and fishing improvement. Our natural world is growing weaker and smaller and the balance is upset with each level of safety we afford ourselves by eliminating that which threatens us. The spiral is gaining momentum.

Leaving Mother Earth and seeking our fortune somewhere else may be realistic in another 2 or 300 years but at the moment, not really an option. Where the hell could we go? Hell may actually be the answer. The moon cannot support much without extreme terraforming and many many years of effort, not to mention cost. Even then its size and lack of resources really limits the population it could support. Orbiting Space Cities may be an answer for some, but again, a long way off. Traveling to another solar system may be fine and dandy in the books which describe it but with our current technologies and even in the foreseeable future, a bit of a pipe dream. Of course a population of 6 to 8 Billion that is hard to move as a group emotionally is difficult to sway with a moral plea or to where the food grows, never mind to another location light years away.

Returning to a sort of harmony with Mother Nature is probably not a realistic goal in the near future but the only really acceptable choice that we have to consider. In order to do this, either a drastic decrease in population is required or every one of the existing in habitants of this wonderful planet must work together to end the harmful practices in which we now engage. Not only that but we must then begin responsible management of our remaining resources. A tall order you say? I tend to agree.

Is there hope? With the current policies and levels of denial practiced by 90% of the worlds population, I would say, not much. Of course as soon as something cataclysmic occurs everyone seems to get serious and do something, even if it is just turning off the light in an unused room or putting that plastic bag into the recycling bin. What would have to happen in order for the majority of the earth’s people to really change the way they live in a manner that would circumvent the coming doom and gloom theory? Global warming sure isn’t working, deforestation also hasn’t really jolted too many people and most every disaster such as Hurricane Katrina and the melting of the Polar Ice caps are passed off as natural calamities that just happen. It is all natural and cyclic so nothing to get too stirred up about. Maybe a plague that wipes out a Billion people or so would do it, or a complete collapse of the Oceans ability to sustain us, or worse. What will it take?

I certainly hope that we can wake up without too much death and destruction as a motivator but history seems to be against me on that. For now I will continue to turn off the lights when I am not using them, recycle, beg my energy company for green alternatives, speak out against irresponsible environmental practices, educate and implore all I can to do the same and try to save as much as I can for my little girl to enjoy and protect.

I would like to be, but would understand if the cosmos decided against it