MEGA CRISIS LOOMS FOR HUMAN BEINGS – WHATS THE BIG DEAL?

Looking at the evidence, and by that I mean evidence available via the multiple media formats that increasing numbers of us have easy access to as well as the evidence which is apparent though our daily experience of the world we inhabit, its pretty damn clear that us human beings have wrought some very significant changes to the face of the planet we inhabit, nearly all of them negative from the perspective of ‘quality of life’ or indeed, what is so laughably termed ‘sustainable development’.
Equally laughable in my opinion is the notion that ‘we’ can do anything about it! You see, I have what might be termed a ‘post- Lovelockian’ perspective on the matter. My thesis is that there is actually nothing of any significance that can be done about the current ‘environmental crisis’ and further, kidding ourselves that there is, is simply collective egotism of the most monstrous kind. In fact , to me, ‘doing something about it’ is a paradoxical notion. Of course, this is a huge heresy, are we not the all powerful Homo sapiens? Bestriding the world like a dominant and yet benevolent conqueror? And do we not have a mighty and unique tool at our disposal in the shape of the human brain? Capable of making ipods and atom bombs, ring pull cans and mortgages, indeed a veritable panoply of amazing constructs that are surely proof in themselves that we are close to almighty? Wielding this extraordinary tool there is surely no need for us to be concerned, after all, there will be another technological fix along in a short while, the ‘boffins’ will figure it out, I mean to say, ‘things’ are much better now than they were one hundred or one thousand years ago aren’t they?
Hmmm, well, depends on your perspective I guess. If you are a western, modern, middle class individual you are certainly likely to live longer and be materially wealthier than you would have been in the distant past, but are we actually more fulfilled, are we happier? I would venture that sales of prozac and diazepam suggest possibly not. We are beset by affluenza, obesity, and mental illness and yet we fondly believe that we have never had it so good. And of course, for the vast majority of us things are actually massively worse, no access to clean water, enslavement to malignant political, religious or commercial systems, malnutrition and poverty are actually all on the rise for the majority of human kind.

Way to go Homo sapiens.

And now we are faced with a huge crisis, the likes of which our species have only experienced on a very few occasions, if ever. Our planet simply cannot support our burgeoning population, and there is going to be a cull, sixty to eighty percent of the human race will be removed, maybe more, there will be massive unrest, wars, tyranny on a scale previously unimagined coming to a country near you soon. The climate will change, sea levels will rise, the poles will shrink or disappear. The balance of probability says that this will happen and happen in our children’s lifetime. There is no technological fix that will allow us to continuing to ‘develop’ ad infinitum.
Let us therefore consider the ‘long game’: The doom merchants love to talk about the ‘Big rock from space’ or ‘Supervolcanoes’ and indeed these are all real and ever-present, however, the immediate threat is that we have well exceeded our planets capacity, overpopulation plus climate change is happening now, not hundreds of thousands or millions of years into the future.. Of course the Tech-Fix merchants will have it that eventually we will migrate to other planets, or build huge artificial habitats in space, that we will migrate away from the sun, live in tubes and push buttons, that we will live forever in luxury and good health….. Well, apart from the fact that this is purest childish fantasy/wish fulfillment I can’t imagine that we would be any happier than we are now. Consider, it may be possible, by linking our bodies up to various pieces of medical kit to allow us to live for simply ages, disease and stress free in fluid filled pods free from threat of physical trauma of any kind. Fancy it? No, I didn’t think you would… It seems to me that we have become confused and have come to absolutely equate happiness with living a long (preferably immortal) and physically healthy life ( nowhere more apparent than in the US) and it is the blind adherence to this idea that has lead us to where we now find ourselves. Thus, it is not until we, as a species, are able to understand that this may not be the path to ultimate fulfillment that things will change.
And part of this path involves changing our attitude to death promulgated by the Abrahamic religions. I have no fear of death, I certainly fear the pain that may be associated with it however, but this can be ameliorated simply by the use of some natural plant alkaloids and changing societal attitudes to euthanasia. For me death equals peace and I can’t understand what there is to fear about peace.
Back to the long view: Worst case scenario, all of humanity is removed from the planet. What has really changed? From the perspective of our collective ego, much, but from a Gaia perspective, almost nothing, the celestial bodies continue on their orbits as if nothing has changed at all! If the population is significantly thinned out then fine, the biosphere will continue its ever changing dance, new forms will arise and fade, catastrophes will happen, yes, that super volcano will eventually erupt, that big rock will come crashing down, it has happened before and it will happen again. It is, simply, the way things work and we should be celebrating that rather than fighting it.