by Joel
February 21, 2005

Unfortunately, humans don't change until forced to. Small examples would be humans that buy gas guzzling SUVs, trucks, etc. in spite of knowing their harmful effects to the environment/dependence on oil. We won't change to new technologies (hydrogen fuel cells, etc.) until gas prices rise high enough. Or humans buying rainforest wood to enrich/beautify their homes even knowing about the destruction to the environment and wildlife this causes. (Often times they're against other humans doing it but justify it for themselves). Wars that teach young men its horrors only to be relearned again and again...

There is a pervasive human greed factor that is often attempted to be justified by life's insecurities: poverty, starvation, war, disease, death, etc. Everything is always based on growth: debt based dollars to pay accruing interest, world economies to sustain growing populations.

I believe that one solution is population control (not forced but through education/financial incentive) through the use of various birth control methods. (Thank God China's communist regime was able to implement the one child policy). For example, in the Philippines, a political candidate cannot get elected for even mentioning birth control because of the power of the Catholic church and its control over a majority of the people there. Many women want their tubes tied but are unable because of a law in place stemming from the Catholic church. (A few exceptions: They can get their tubes tied after delivering a baby but usually at that time their blood pressure is too high and the procedure is denied).

The world must stabilize/reduce its population so that its inhabitants have a chance of living in harmony with one another and their environment. (Destruction to our oceans, rivers, forest, land, atmosphere, etc.) This mindset of perpetual growth must change to to fit reality.

As a young high school student working on Barro Colorado / Gatun Lake / Panama Canal in 1972, I learned from Smithsonian Institute funded scientists (entimologists/biologists/etc.) performing plant and insect research that certain insect populations grew at exponential rates destroying their plant habitats. Just when the host plant was about to be decimated, as the particular insect species' population growth was charting a parabolic path, a disease wiped out about 80-90% of the insect population, and the plant species gradually made a come back. An example of the power of Mother Nature to keep a balance.

I learned that unless mankind can learn to live in harmony with Mother Nature, she will need to find a way to keep things in balance. I would have added to your list of impending disasters for the year of the Rooster, a virus or viruses that spread throughout the human population that decimates atleast 60% of the population 3 BILLION or more humans - this would be mild compared to what Mother Nature did to the various insect species as mentioned above.

The universe provided us with a brain to think and relate - a critical mass of humans need to come to this realization or suffer the consequences. Although my philosophy is to never, ever give up hope, and I will continue to do my small part, I'm not particularly hopeful that enough humans can change their thinking on this matter in time to prevent catastrophy.

My philosophy views this world as a revolving door much like a school of learning from pre-school through Ph.D.s. Many graduate never to return to this plane, others come back as teachers, but the nature of this world is to never be perfect- only to show perfection as well as imperfection in many forms. There will always be lower conscience and higher conscience passing through its doors. We can only do our part by learning from life and sharing/living what we know to help others.

We live in interesting times.

Joel