Today, in a variety of newspapers, web sites and on TV, the "news" that global climate change is a real and serious problem -- caused primarily by human pollution -- and there is not a lot of time left for us to turn things around. I have harped on this for many posts, and I will harp on it again.
I know that we will NOT turn things around. That is not what humans do. They procrastinate until their world comes crashing down. All civilizations have failed, eventually, due to built-in human conditions that are well known to everyone -- greed, jealousy, hatred, violence and (most of all) poor planning.
Rome decayed from within, until it was easy for barbarians to finish her off. The pharaohs reined for thousands of years, but eventually the Nile could not support the population when bad times fell, such as when volcanic explosions disrupted the normal cycles of life in that region. Before them, in the Garden of Eden (or somewhere near Babylon), what was once a cradle of civilization grew barren and wasted.
In all of the cases, humans pushed the limits of their survival until the straw that broke the camel's back was all there was left to eat. In the Americas, where once there were great Incan and Mayan pyramid builders there lay only ruins overgrown by jungles after the inhabitants had overpopulated beyond the land's bounty. In their places are the scattered remnants of native tribes -- the survivors.
Later, while the Aztecs were still able to survive in a similar, grandiose manner, the Spanish ships came and the soldiers destroyed them. The Aztec religions and traditions could not fathom the effects of an outside force that could perform the impossible -- cross the ocean. The cause was not so much greed as pride -- and belief in religion rather than one's own eyes. The Spanish were guilty, greedy and pompous, but their empire fell eventually, as well.
This story has been told thousands of times with different players -- the Greeks, the Trojans, the British, the Ottomans, the Americans. All the civilizations have cracks in their foundations. All will come tumbling down.
Now, with billions living on a planet with certain limits of growth, we are once again approaching a time when our world can come crashing down. But this time there are warnings. There is history. There is science. But, unfortunately, there is human nature. We will fail again. And this time it will not be just the Egyptians or Greeks or Americans. It will be much more similar to the extinction of the dinosaurs.
I hope I am wrong. I hope that science will prevail instead of greed and religion. For my grandchildren, I hope I am wrong.
I know that we will NOT turn things around. That is not what humans do. They procrastinate until their world comes crashing down. All civilizations have failed, eventually, due to built-in human conditions that are well known to everyone -- greed, jealousy, hatred, violence and (most of all) poor planning.
Rome decayed from within, until it was easy for barbarians to finish her off. The pharaohs reined for thousands of years, but eventually the Nile could not support the population when bad times fell, such as when volcanic explosions disrupted the normal cycles of life in that region. Before them, in the Garden of Eden (or somewhere near Babylon), what was once a cradle of civilization grew barren and wasted.
In all of the cases, humans pushed the limits of their survival until the straw that broke the camel's back was all there was left to eat. In the Americas, where once there were great Incan and Mayan pyramid builders there lay only ruins overgrown by jungles after the inhabitants had overpopulated beyond the land's bounty. In their places are the scattered remnants of native tribes -- the survivors.
Later, while the Aztecs were still able to survive in a similar, grandiose manner, the Spanish ships came and the soldiers destroyed them. The Aztec religions and traditions could not fathom the effects of an outside force that could perform the impossible -- cross the ocean. The cause was not so much greed as pride -- and belief in religion rather than one's own eyes. The Spanish were guilty, greedy and pompous, but their empire fell eventually, as well.
This story has been told thousands of times with different players -- the Greeks, the Trojans, the British, the Ottomans, the Americans. All the civilizations have cracks in their foundations. All will come tumbling down.
Now, with billions living on a planet with certain limits of growth, we are once again approaching a time when our world can come crashing down. But this time there are warnings. There is history. There is science. But, unfortunately, there is human nature. We will fail again. And this time it will not be just the Egyptians or Greeks or Americans. It will be much more similar to the extinction of the dinosaurs.
I hope I am wrong. I hope that science will prevail instead of greed and religion. For my grandchildren, I hope I am wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment