DEPARTURE
You say you love the rain,
Yet you open your umbrella when it rains.
You say you love the sun,
Yet you seek the shade when the sun shines.
You say you love the wind,
Yet you close your windows when it blows.
You say you love the wilderness,
Yet you live behind those sturdy walls.
You say you love our planet Earth,
Yet you seek to reach the Moon and Mars.
The first six lines adapted from poem attributed to
Turkish author Qyazzirah Syeikh Ariffin.
Under the influence of advancing technological developments, population growth and urban life-styles, we are easily detached, dissociated from nature. For many people, the most recent technological advancements, now constitute nothing less than a religion, devoid of any considerations of their effects, when applied to the Earth system as a whole.
In fact, the promise of unlimited energy generation through nuclear fusion, represents a supreme technological advancement for humanity. But it will spell disaster for the rest of the biosphere. It will enable humanity, uncontrolled expansion of its activities and population, to reach even further into the remaining patches of wildlife and wilderness.
Already, the consequences of human activities on the Earth’s biosphere, are so severe as to affect all other living things, the reason why we call this era, Anthropocene. For many organisms these environmental disturbances are occurring far faster than the time they need to adapt and innovate, extinction lying round the corner.
The increasing dissociation of humanity from nature is demonstrated by the estimated global State spending on lethal armaments at USD 1,700,000,000,000 annually (yes, $1.7 trillion, each year between the years 2009 and 2019!). Added to, by substantial black-market trade. Made worse by the war in Ukraine, global rearmament and geopolitical manoeuvring. Just imagine, the added costs of pollution to atmosphere, land, rivers and Oceans, consequent upon armaments testing, warfare and conflict, let alone the pain, suffering and death. And, what about the collateral damage and destruction to other habitats and living things, amidst exploding bombs and rockets?
In stark contrast, what do we spend on our caretaker responsibility toward our shared environment, the Earth system as a whole? For humanity to survive, a large part of the spending on armaments must be diverted to the circular economy and recycling of waste. To research and development in bionic manufacturing, harnessing plants, algae and bacteria to produce and degrade. To molecular engineering; how to zip molecules together to create rigid compound materials and how to unzip them into liquids and gasses, finding ways to integrate our needs with those of the Earth's ecology. Certainly, not as sexy as developing new armaments and space exploration, but a much greater challenge!
In my book ‘PLANT-LIFE, a Walk with Nature, I make the point that the current consumption of energy, especially of fossil fuels, is an indication of the level of human enterprise and activity. This can be reasonably considered, today, as proportionate to the rate of habitat destruction and loss of biodiversity.
Here is a pragmatic and immediate solution to measuring the ecological footprint of economic growth; to subtract from each country’s annual GDP, the easy to calculate cost of fossil fuel consumed to realize that GDP. The development of alternative sources of energy will be virtuous and translate to a higher ‘real’ GDP.
But, can Homo sapiens be expected to cooperate on such as issue? Would the oil and petrochemical industry allow it? To promote the ideal of a global entity, above all other interests, to take-on our caretaker responsibility toward the Earth system and our shared environment. To seek complimentary interdependence wherever possible, as the new form of competition. Planet Earth still lacks a global authority, global governance, to save us from ourselves! And what a wonderful annual budget, to invest a large part of the $1.7 trillion + each year, enacting on environmental recommendations!
Edward Bent, 15 December 2022
