Terrorizing the Globe
There are many species of beings on this planet, which if they had a voice, would be warning of a great danger. “Species are vanishing at a rate of a hundred to a thousand times faster than they did before the arrival of humans,” says Edward O Wilson, the greatest living Darwinian thinker. Many of those that are taught in the Judo-Christian tradition believe that humanity can behave as lord of creation, treating the earth's natural wealth and other animals as tools, mere instruments for the achievement of human purposes. But human activity is already causing problems to humans on staggering levels yet the majority of people choose to ignore what is happening and going to happen quite soon. The freedom to live on planet earth is being threatened. Humankind poses a growing threat to the health of Earth’s biosphere because of its growing population and the tendency for an increasingly large fraction of it to adopt the lavish consumption patterns of the developed countries. While we can't kill the earth itself, the nurturing aspect of the planet, its climate, air, water and biomass is destructible. Destroy that and we destroy ourselves. But before we actually do that we are doing that to the other species of beings that live on this planet with us. Humans themselves are not getting along with each other either, and the very basic conflicts that have festered for decades are rearing up their most ugly heads. Yet with all of this happening politics and media debates proceed on as if nothing serious is happening. Perhaps next quarter we will see some slight increases in profits and some moderate economic growth. According to a massive United Nations environmental study released in May 2002, the planet is poised on a precipice, and time is running out for making tough political and economic choices that can pull it back from disaster. In 30 years, the Earth could look like a desert-strewn wasteland of urban slums, lose almost a quarter of its mammal species and leave people inhabiting large regions perishing from thirst and water-borne disease. Dramatic climate changes, water shortages, collapse in fisheries, massive loss of topsoil, killing pollution and dramatically quicker rises in sea levels are all predicted by scientists around the world. Sooner or later we have to addresses the harmful effects of consumption patterns, drawing the connection between consumption, population growth and environmental degradation or those connections will be rammed violently down our collective throats. In reality many subjects come together when we talk about the quantity of humans and how that quantity is being dramatically increased to the detriment of the quality of life. We have had many examples in life and history where warnings have been ignored to disastrous effect. We recently had another as the Federal hearing on Sept 11th attacks demonstrated, they just did not see it coming, even with volumes of information and intelligence, and humanity itself does not see what is coming though it is being warned with increasing frequency and force. In February 2001, the C.I.A. chief, George Tenet, testified before Congress that Osama bin Laden and his network were "the most immediate and serious threat" to the U.S. and that they were likely to stage "simultaneous attacks" producing "mass casualties." Few in government, including his own agency felt any great urgency about it then, and neither does the public about a host of things. Warnings like this are not taken seriously enough; it was the same thing with warnings from engineers who had a sense of the problems that led to the disastrous Challenger explosion. There is an overall problem human organizations and people have with listening and communication and it is not often that we can trust our governments or mass medias to pass on appropriate warnings. They are not reliable communicators or dependable sources of important information. Sometimes a governmental agency steps out and makes an exception like the recent CIA reports on dire water shortages worldwide and in the States, shortages that are already being felt in many places, but will become severe enough in 15 years to fight wars over. Issues like this, or like the polar caps melting, ozone depletion or other vital environmental happenings might be mentioned in passing by the media but are never locked into place as issues that we can and must do something about. Instead there is a great obsession with daily events, which in most cases pale in comparison and importance to long-term global issues like climate or water issues. On the weather the media still thinks we are more interested if its raining in Hong Kong then in signs of dramatic climate changes or water table drops that will effect the life of our children. The
world in 2015 will be populated by some The CIA considers global water scarcity “a significant issue in security,” said John Gannon, a former CIA assistant director and former chairman of the National Intelligence Council. Things are already critical as water levels in many aquifers around the world are dropping by several meters a year. The water we are consuming now belongs to future generations. (Personally I first heard of these problems about five years ago when I lived in the interior highlands of Brazil where many rivers are born. I did not believe it could be possibly true and it was only this year that I began to pay attention to this particular and absolute issue related to human survival) None of the proposed solutions to the water crisis — importing water, water conservation, expanded use of desalination of seawater or developing genetically modified crops that use less water — will be “sufficient to substantially change the outlook for water shortages in 2015,” according to Global Trends 2015, a report by the intelligence council. Agriculture accounts for two-thirds of water use worldwide and 80 percent to 90 percent in many developing countries. Since 1950, the global renewable freshwater supply per person has fallen 58 percent as world population has swelled from 2.5 billion to 6 billion. Some of this is already coming home to Californians who as of New Year's Day 2002 have had three of their eight water pumps on the Colorado River shut down by federal order. Now much less water is churning down the 242-mile aqueduct toward coastal Southern California, where 17 million people rely on snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains for washing dishes, flushing toilets and watering lawns. This is a pivotal moment in the contentious history of water in the arid West, which more often than not has pitted California's unquenchable thirst against that of its smaller but equally parched neighbours. For the first time since it was given the authority four decades ago, the United States Department of the Interior has said no to California's dipping into the Colorado River for more than its allotted share. This is just the beginning of a problem that has no way of going away. The frog does not drink up
the pond in which he lives. It is a nice fantasy to dream of a world of unlimited resources with an infinite amount of space, water, and top soil that refused to be degraded by human use, and most of us do seem to live life with absolutely no concern for living our lives in a way that will have terrible consequences to future generations. While the Islamic terrorists are terrorizing present civilization present civilization is terrorizing its own future. We are a problem. It’s a strange combination of our mere and sheer presence. The problem is in our fantastically increasing numbers and in the fantastically insane denial of the style in which so many are choosing to live. On the sheer side Jonette Christian, a family therapist had this to say about overpopulation, "As this future descends upon our children, public silence about these numbers is deafening. And we are responding like deer with headlights in our eyes-paralysed or else indifferent-and we would rather talk about almost anything else: urban sprawl, pollution, traffic, declining fish stocks, falling water tables, overcrowded schools -- anything to avoid blunt speech about population numbers.” Population growth drives deforestation, causes the pollution of air, water and soil, and results in the fragmentation of wildlife habitats, which forces many species to the brink of extinction. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. Air pollution is a direct mirror of how numbers and life style combine to form a deadly gaseous cocktail. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution kills 3 million people annually, three times the number "who die in automobile accidents." A study published in 2000 (Lancet) demonstrated that air pollution was "responsible for more than 40,000 deaths annually" in France, Austria and Switzerland. In the U.S., "air pollution claims 70,000 lives annually." This exceeds 1 ˝ times the number of traffic fatalities and equals the annual mortality "from breast and prostate cancer combined." Air pollutants are known to produce arterial constriction and reduce blood flow and oxygen supply to the heart. More importantly, the principle chemical pollutants found in the air have no safe level; they damage humans even at very low levels. They "affect death rates, hospitalizations and medical visits, complications of asthma and bronchitis, days of work lost, restricted-activity days, and a variety of measures of lung damage.” And beyond the immediate human affect is the damage that is being done to the ozone layer high in the atmosphere, which protects the earth’s biosphere from toxic ultra-violet rays from the sun. Already it has been noted in countries like Argentina, Chile, New Zealand and Australia the near lethal effects when the ozone hole passes overhead. It was noted that on such occasions in certain places that it took only seven minutes of exposure to burn the skin. Deforestation is yet another serious problem and there is no doubt that we enjoy a finer existence on earth because of the green of trees and forests. But powerful economic interests are in control of most of the deforestation on the planet, driven by the consumption of wood, paper and other forest products in the developed and overdeveloped countries. And in places like Brazil we also have the awfully unfair distribution of land that drives peasants into the Amazon looking for some of it. Five percent of Brazil's landowners hold approximately eighty-one percent of the country's farmland. Deforestation tends to cause the worlds climate to become more extreme in nature with the occurrence and strength of floods and droughts increasing. Forests store large amounts of carbon that are released when trees are cut or burned. It is projected that deforestation and the burning of biomass will be responsible for fifteen percent of the greenhouse effect between 1990 and 2025 (FAO 1993). The earth’s forests are the lungs of our planet, especially the Amazon, which if lost with the polar caps, spells doom and certainly gloom. Recent reports by the World Resources Institute have shown that more than 80% of the planet's natural forests have already been destroyed and it is estimated that 100 percent of the northern polar icecap will be gone by the end of this century. Again we have a combination of population and consumption patterns driving much of the destruction and humanity waits for the ax to fall on its collective neck while many insist that there is nothing to worry about. These patterns of over consumption and high population numbers are even creating enormous problems in the sea where we see pollution in the middle of the ocean and the destruction of coral reefs around the globe. But of even more immediate concern is the fact we humans are now over farming the ocean fishing not only in deeper waters, but also lower on the food chain. This has ominous implications, because as the lower levels of the food chain decline, the chances of revival at the top of the food chain are diminished dramatically. Scientists are now discussing the "wholesale collapse" of marine ecosystems. There is no doubt now that continuation of present trends will lead to widespread fisheries collapses. The outlook is not much better on land either when it comes to the soil. Soil erosion is one result of industrialization of agriculture, which is reported by some people to strip each cultivated acre of 5.6 tons of topsoil per year. If one thinks the crucial issue defining carrying capacity of humanity is topsoil, then one seems faced with achieving roughly an 80 percent reduction in human population by the end of this century. Taken together, polar ice caps in retreat, deforestation, ground water tables falling dramatically coupled with water pollution, soil erosion, air pollution, the collapse of fisheries, and ozone depletion and we have a situation which will certainly change life as we know it on planet earth. These problems are vast in dimension. But vaster still are the effects like dramatic climate changes, natural disasters, and falling food production in the face of still rising population. Already millions are starving around the world even though there is in fact enough food for everyone. It will take such a small shift in climate to affect catastrophic changes in food production and this does not take into account the already solidly predicted shortage of water that is looming up in the very near future. We are in trouble but many people insist that there is no overpopulation (numbers and consumption taken together) crisis anywhere in the world and perhaps they site the fact that the worldwide average number of children per woman fell from 4.3 in 1960 to 2.6 in 2000. Yet the world's population doubled during the past 45 years to 6.2 billion, and is projected to almost double again within 70 years, adding 250,000 people to the world each day. (A large new city every two weeks) At the same time, food, fresh water, quality soil, energy and biodiversity are being degraded or depleted. The freedom to reproduce is creating problems for other freedoms: from poverty, from disease, from malnutrition and from environmental problems. Most people insist that consumption is certainly desirable and few people in the first world resist heavy consumption patterns if and when they can afford them. And the rest of the world dreams of what they will never be able to spend with television the ultimate driver of much of the world’s imagination. Just like we still do not want to talk openly about sex we do not want to talk openly about these subjects and the mass media does its best to delay and diminish the publication and airing of depressing data. The media flat out refuses to bring diverse subjects together in an interdisciplinary fashion so comprehension of humanities real problems can become visible and perhaps dealt with in creative and intelligent manners. Jonette Christian compared our inability to talk about over population with the behaviour of dysfunctional groups. ´´They avoid conversation about the pink elephant in the living room at all costs, and they exhaust themselves in a flurry of helpful activity around peripheral matters. We have agitated, confused and deluded ourselves with the illusion that we are being overwhelmed by many, many problems -- when in fact we have primarily only one. But it is the one that terrifies us the most, and we handle that terror by chattering endlessly about everything else. Denying and minimizing population growth in the 1990s is a hate crime against future generations, and it must end." One of the lead indicators of where we are headed, as a race, is China because they are far advanced along the path to which the rest of humanity seems inexorably headed in terms of numbers. And now those numbers are industrializing at very high rates and the impact of this is being felt beyond China’s borders. Areas from Canada to Arizona have been blanketed with a layer of dust originating from a huge dust storm in Northern China. Deterioration of the rangeland and cropland have resulted in dust plumes which routinely travel hundreds of miles to cities in northeastern China, obscuring the sun, reducing visibility, slowing traffic, and closing airports. According to the UN FAO, "80% of its 50,000 kilometers of rivers no longer support fish". China’s "own data show that it will be skirting the edge of disaster as it shifts to industrialization.” And now China announced plans for an engineering feat of gigantic proportions to redirect water from the south of the country to the thirsty north, a project that will eventually will pump 48 billion tons of water a year. The entire project won't be completed until 2050 though some of the water will reach Beijing by 2010. It is said that water to be pumped in one year would supply New York City for a quarter of a century. It is known that the water tables under the northern plains and around Beijing are dropping faster than almost any other place in the world. The United Nations (UN) World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg should have figured population as a key component of sustainable development, but the topic was basically absent. If we do not put the human population at the core of the sustainable-development agenda, our efforts to improve human well-being and preserve the quality of the environment will fail. This is one of the basic conclusions of the Global Science Panel on Population and Environment, an independent body of experts organized by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population and the United Nations. Why is it that we have so much trouble making the connection between runaway population growth and environmental degradation? Because these issues call into question the deepest issues of religion, sexuality, male dominated philosophy, and capitalistic dreams of unlimited growth and expansion at the expense of the environment. If the costs of environmental destruction where included on companies and economies balance sheets the whole system would have already gone down the tubes. All of these problems are spiritual as well as psychological issues, ones that modern psychology does not want to touch with a ten-foot pole. In reality many subjects come together when we need to talk about the quantity of humans and how that quantity is being dramatically increased to the detriment of the quality of life. Prosperity
built on the despoliation of the environment How many people can the planet support is an important question that few people care to ask. It depends basically on three conditions: how far into the future the planetary support is expected to last, how evenly the resources are to be distributed, and expectations as to the quality of life. The impact of humanity on Earth's life support systems is not just determined by the number of people alive on the planet. It also depends on how those people behave. The earth is capable of supporting many more ecologically minded people than insensitive consumers, who know no reasonable limits. This relationship is critical when it comes to food. Food is the most crucial measure of carrying capacity. The world currently produces approximately 2 billion tons of grain, which provides most of humanity’s calories. This amount will feed 10 billion East Indians who eat primarily grains but only 2.5 billion Americans, who consume grains in the form of livestock and poultry. Thus, to feed a rising population, either industrialized populations must become more vegetarian or grain production must increase very significantly. The average European cow receives US$ 2.20 in subsidies a day while 2.8 billion people in the world live on less than US$ 2 a day. The intimacy between population growth, especially in first world countries like the States, heavy consumption patterns and economic growth reflect back to an addiction and attachment to the whole system of capitalism which up to now has depended on never ending growth. One of the key relationships is found in the amount of energy and resources each per person uses. America’s present rates of consumption are not sustainable in an ecological sense or in any sense really. For instance large quantities of fossil fuel in the form of fertilizers and pesticides are used to power farm equipment and are essential for U.S. food production. Approximately 400 gallons of oil equivalents per American are used in the U.S. food system. The U.S. Department of Energy and others project that in about 15 years, the U.S. will be importing approximately 100% of the oil it needs. How will the United States pay for oil imports after the U.S. population doubles to 540 million in a few decades? U.S. oil production peaked in 1970; today the U.S. imports about 65% of its oil creating a third world debtor nation outlook. The U.S. has already used up 75% of its total recoverable oil and in 1999, U.S. oil production reached a forty year low. Recognizing the desperate situation the U.S. is already using its military might to preserve access to oil. This is frightful in its own right, but even more significantly, it is indicative of its political reluctance to re-define its future direction. It would be a mistake to believe that President Bush’s interest in Iraq has nothing to do with these vital national security interests. Bush is not so kind and tender hearted that he is concerned with the mass deaths of people who do not live in America. The American industrial military complex is absolutely and totally committed to preserving the lifeblood of the American economy that needs more people and more oil to keep its system humming. Ecological vulnerability is not the only mirror of over consumption and unsustainable policies and behavior. Far more dramatically than the rest of the world, the United States will collapse under the mountain of its own incredible debts and fantastically high levels of continued public expenditure that created the debt in the first place. The population in the United States was estimated at 288,398,973 on 9/13/02. However, the gross national debt has grown 1,140 million per day since 9/28/01. On 9/13/02, USA treasury numbers showed the entire debt at $6,217,073,017,071.89. This is just part of an avalanche waiting to fall down on the world in the next steep recession, which will come sooner or later according to all economic theory, logic and the mathematics of cycles. (See chapter on the Terrorism of Money and Debt) Its a good thing the U.S. has the best ´legal´ printing presses and good thing for them that people around the world are still desiring both dollars and US securities. A great part of the wealth of the US was built upon its capacity to borrow from itself and print money almost without limit. And it has been helped by the Japanese and other foreigners willingness to not only lend the US tremendous amounts of money through the purchase of US treasury notes, but they have bought up American assets in the trillions of dollars, supporting America’s trip into the false heaven of fabulous wealth. Unlike
plagues of the dark ages or contemporary diseases We are rasping against ecological time bombs and it is already ‘probably’ too late to avert widespread human disaster. To a great degree human overpopulation is a sexual issues, which means a religious issue. Religious fanaticism continues to favor the domination and repression of women and their sexuality and their access to education resources and opportunity. Some agencies say that filling the unmet need for family planning could reduce population growth by as much as a third, given the estimated number of unintended pregnancies in the developing world. Yet the governments with the money to fund such initiatives would not only prefer to spend it on military might and muscle, they resist and actively block international family planning initiatives. Population growth can be slowed by investing heavily in female literacy and family planning services yet the American government, obsessed with sexual issues, with abortion, even though it is legal in its own country, blocks as much as possible international investment in family planning. None of this will change if mankind himself does not change, and thus, through the ever-present stubbornness of our separate egotistical selves, we will see our kids suffer in ways we really do not want to imagine. Today we as a race are facing something that has never been faced before yet we are being hypnotized by television and media; sedated with over-the-counter and illegal drugs, and distracted by recreation and entertainment industries that keep us amused and walking in our sleep. But we have to begin to think straight and start to make some decisions that will begin a long process of change inside of ourselves. We also need to find new ways of relating to the external world of others and the environment which we all share. If we do not work toward change why should we expect things to turn out ok? It
is a delusion to think that the world will get any better Is it really possible that we would rather have our children and grandchildren face Armageddon than do anything to change ourselves? Does it really mean that we do not need a race of computers to conquer us like in the movie The Matrix because we have already allowed ourselves to do it to ourselves? Have we already turned into batteries? As long as someone else pays the bills, even if it’s our children and grandchildren, who are we to care? In reality the great unlooked at issue is human uncaring which in modern society translates into politically correct selfishness. World events are revealing to us our true nature. The recent lessons coming from New York, Bali, Washington, and now even Moscow are suggesting an end to a way of life. An end to security and the free enjoyment of pleasures divorced from the suffering, frustrations and delusion of the worlds billions. These events are all strands of a single story, as is the entirety of our ecological crisis. All of this is happening to us because of us. It is the same us that is happening all over the globe. The same people who have a hard time caring for the ones they are supposed to love have difficulty caring for the earth or anyone else’s problems and difficulties. It is hard enough for humans to really care even about a friend or mate, much less about strangers. The conflicts of the earth are intensifying along all fronts; it’s not a picnic anymore. Our planet is getting sick because we are sick and there seems like there is no doctor in the house with a power or wisdom to turn the course of events. A breakthrough in consciousness and a quantum leap in evolutionary awareness seem to be required for humanity to turn its course away from its current race to destruction. Many have thought this breakthrough imminent, others have thought it has already arrived, but has it or will it?
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