lately, thinking about the economic and ecological balance sheet, I had an idea that is old hat for some, but it really shocked me.
We have been willfully turning our back on what has been patently obvious for about half my lifetime.We as a species have chosen to exhume what was secreted away by nature, so our environment could take advantage of our planet's Goldilocks Zone. We evolved in it, because of it, and to fit it exactly. It was as perfect as a planet could be.
But the planet started with an atmosphere of mainly carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Then, that CO2 was sequestered away over millions of years, by plants and seaweeds as oil, coal, peat, natural gas and trees, leaving our atmosphere in a balance that allowed us and all modern life to flourish and be in balance.
In this sense, coal and oil etc are Nature's Hazardous Waste Dumps and there they stayed, untouched through the whole evolution of modern plants and animals. So what have we done with those hazardous wasted dumps? Surely we would not be dumb enough to dig exhume them?
Would you believe, that for a few years' worth of wealth for some, we have been willing to sacrifice it all. Big miners, and the politician recipients of their campaign funds, took that attitude that their wealth was more important than the sustainability of life on Planet Earth. Through their mouthpieces in the media and in politics, they have confused us into thinking there might be an easier choice. They tell us that what science tells us is a conspiracy and it is OK to keep digging into the hazardous waste dumps. "Listen to the grown-ups and trust us!"
The very wealthy can pay any price for anything, while the rest of us have to deal with their mess. For a few years of cheap electricity and fuel, we are trading away: Clean air, uncontaminated water, a consistent sea level, a benign atmosphere, plankton and the fisheries that rely on them, coral reefs, and the list goes on.
Do we really want to wait until river deltas, that feed perhaps three billion people, are ruined by salt water ingress? Do we wait until so many cities that have taken a thousand years to build, become awash and empty out? Do we want to watch the whole of Bangladesh become uninhabitable?
Many Island states are already going nderwater. Do we really need to keep breeding ourselves into poverty and conflict?
We know what we have to do,we have the technology to do it, but we do not have the wisdom to go that last mile and fix it. And it has to be done now!
Am I being alarmist? Not for a moment. But I believe in democracy and am searching for a political party that GETS IT?