On the Earth Abiding Forever 


Semi-random reflections on the over-humanization of our favorite planet. 

The earth is too full of people who don't care about her enough.

There's global warming, for example. There is a direct correlation between the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the mean annual temperature. The well-known greenhouse effect refers to the fact that when the carbon dioxide content of the planet's atmosphere increases, so too does the atmosphere tend to bounce the sun's rays back to earth instead of releasing them into space. Left to its own devices, Earth tends to maintain the level of carbon dioxide within limits because photosynthesis absorbs CO2 and produces oxygen and water.
However, our current practices both of using the combustion of fossil fuels (e. g. gasoline) as a major source of energy and also reducing the plant growth area of the planet (as in cutting rain forests and clear cutting virgin forests) have apparently overcome the planet's tendency to main a relatively constant CO2 level. If we cared more about the earth we would reverse these practices, regardless of the impact on our convenience.

There's over-population. I used to think that over-population was the primary cause of our environmental woes. I now see that it's not just only that we are filling the world with people; it's that we're filling the planet with people who don't care about her. More precisely, these people tend to see the earth as a means to their own ends, rather than as an end in herself. Clearly, when you get more and more people cutting trees and burning gas, then you have a double problem. Recently, two state courts, New York and Washington, used alleged state interest in encouraging families to turn back requests for the right to same-sex marriage. Meanwhile, the planet is crying for someone to encourage very small families, but no, we can't touch that problem, too much infringement of individual rights.

There's inequitable distribution of the world's resources. I don't need to quote the easily available statistics. The world's riches are under the control of a very small number of people, who are NOT using their wealth, by and large, to improve the lot of the many, at least not in any profound scope. I will grant you a few exceptions, but the tendency is for everyone not to care about the earth and its citizens, and for the well-off citizens to assume that they deserve what they have and to assume that the others who do not have do not deserve what they do not have.

Meanwhile, wars are fought often for two principle reasons: religious and political. Wars are often fought because the leaders of one country or cultural group think that a different country or cultural group is their enemy and deserves to be punished, defeated or destroyed. And you can always find in every war a group of people who are trying to make themselves even more wealthy and powerful than they already are. Frequently they disguise their greed and fear by pointing to some alleged danger from the quarter of the enemy.

Conditions will eventually become so intolerable on this planet that these factors will be altered. If the planet heats up enough and uses enough natural resources, the population WILL decrease, in a series of painful, horrible events. Even the wealth of the rich will not protect them from the eventual consequences of our mistreatment of the planet and its citizens. The only question is, will the state of war become the norm until only few or left, or will the citizens of Earth align themselves with the goals of peace and sharing?

We cannot give up hope that things will change. Support the Millennium Development Goals:


 

Posted: Wed - August 2, 2006 at 07:28 PM          

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