This is something that I've been thinking about recently. How are humans as a whole treating the environment? what about global warming, rising sea levels, extinction of species? what do we need to do? what should we do? what can we do? There is a song called Perfect Harmony by one of my favourite bands. It implies that the only way that we can live in perfect harmony with the world, is to be part of the world, but not part of humanity. The protagonist never saw his mother, was born in a secret part of the deep forest, and was brought up in the forest by the animals and the spirits of the forest (yes, there was a bit of that going, but their lyrics are often inspired by fantasy so it fits in context). He was the 'only human being to live in perfect harmony'. So what should we do if that's the only way to fit? I'll discuss each of my questions separately. Before I start though, I must say that I am, have never been, and probably never will be an environmental activist, an animal rights activist or anything related to these fields. I'd just like a bit of responsibility.
First of all, humans aren't treating the environment well. Think about yourself, do you use electric lights? are you reading this on a computer? I'm not talking explicitly about your carbon footprint, although we may as well ask about that also. How big is it? Do you even know? I'm not trying to take the high ground here, I'm about as bad as anyone.
Global warming. While there is some (granted that there isn't much) doubt about whether its anything more than a cycle, and while it is a natural process (granted that the effect is increased by human activity), global warming isn't the point. The point is that the effect is exacerbated by humans. Yes it is irreversible (unless you want to start sucking all of the greenhouse gasses out into space) but it isn't as bad as it can be. This also apparently affects the sea level. I don't pretend to be a smart person, but as far as I knew the sea is most of the reason that the worlds temperature isn't as high as it could be, we should be thankful for rising sea levels to some extent.
Extinction of species. I will preface this by saying that I am not a fan of the whole thing. However, if we were to take the theory of natural selection, (which incidently is not a theory no matter how many people want to claim that it is, the theory is evolution. Natural selection has been shown to be true many times, for example, look at the peppered moth) the fact that these animals are dying out means that they were not suited to live in the environment in which they were in, they were weak and failed to adapt. In a strictly Darwinian sense (which I do not agree with) this is a good thing - it shows that those which are stronger live and the weaker perish.
However, biologically speaking, in any certain environment whether it be in nature or somewhere else, the thing which fulfils any function best is the thing which suits that function best, e.g. the best thing to get rid of quick breeding insects is something that will eat flies, a spider which has been designed (or evolved depending on where you stand) to fit this purpose. When you take spiders out of the system, insects thrive and eventually overrun the system in which they find themselves. From this alone, preservation of species in their native environment is a good thing.
The final real question there is what is there to do. Yes we've all heard what we should do and how we should do it. Yes we've all been told over and over again that we can make a difference individually. And yes almost everyone either is doing something or wants to do something. So I'm not going to give you any of these. What I'm going to give you is a reason. The reason comes by way of a question. What is it worth. It is unspecified. It may be the environment as a whole, it may be the area where you live, it may be the pandas. For me, it is potentially my kids, or, if that never eventuates, the next generations. People often say that they want to give their kids a better life than they had, how about their kids or their kids or so on. I heard someone the other day say that the sun would die in 5 billion years from the 17 of Movember this year; now I am fairly sure that the accuracy of that statement is suspect, but I'm fairly sure that the earth itself won't last that long under it's current level of strain. My reason is that our kids shouldn't have to deal with the way we've screwed everything up.
First of all, humans aren't treating the environment well. Think about yourself, do you use electric lights? are you reading this on a computer? I'm not talking explicitly about your carbon footprint, although we may as well ask about that also. How big is it? Do you even know? I'm not trying to take the high ground here, I'm about as bad as anyone.
Global warming. While there is some (granted that there isn't much) doubt about whether its anything more than a cycle, and while it is a natural process (granted that the effect is increased by human activity), global warming isn't the point. The point is that the effect is exacerbated by humans. Yes it is irreversible (unless you want to start sucking all of the greenhouse gasses out into space) but it isn't as bad as it can be. This also apparently affects the sea level. I don't pretend to be a smart person, but as far as I knew the sea is most of the reason that the worlds temperature isn't as high as it could be, we should be thankful for rising sea levels to some extent.
Extinction of species. I will preface this by saying that I am not a fan of the whole thing. However, if we were to take the theory of natural selection, (which incidently is not a theory no matter how many people want to claim that it is, the theory is evolution. Natural selection has been shown to be true many times, for example, look at the peppered moth) the fact that these animals are dying out means that they were not suited to live in the environment in which they were in, they were weak and failed to adapt. In a strictly Darwinian sense (which I do not agree with) this is a good thing - it shows that those which are stronger live and the weaker perish.
However, biologically speaking, in any certain environment whether it be in nature or somewhere else, the thing which fulfils any function best is the thing which suits that function best, e.g. the best thing to get rid of quick breeding insects is something that will eat flies, a spider which has been designed (or evolved depending on where you stand) to fit this purpose. When you take spiders out of the system, insects thrive and eventually overrun the system in which they find themselves. From this alone, preservation of species in their native environment is a good thing.
The final real question there is what is there to do. Yes we've all heard what we should do and how we should do it. Yes we've all been told over and over again that we can make a difference individually. And yes almost everyone either is doing something or wants to do something. So I'm not going to give you any of these. What I'm going to give you is a reason. The reason comes by way of a question. What is it worth. It is unspecified. It may be the environment as a whole, it may be the area where you live, it may be the pandas. For me, it is potentially my kids, or, if that never eventuates, the next generations. People often say that they want to give their kids a better life than they had, how about their kids or their kids or so on. I heard someone the other day say that the sun would die in 5 billion years from the 17 of Movember this year; now I am fairly sure that the accuracy of that statement is suspect, but I'm fairly sure that the earth itself won't last that long under it's current level of strain. My reason is that our kids shouldn't have to deal with the way we've screwed everything up.
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