The More Things Change the More they Stay the Same.

The other night I was watching David Suzuki deliver a speech at a school in Ottawa. I studied a great deal of his theories and papers in University and always thought that he was a fascinating man who should truly be revered and honored.

I focused on his description on caveman days in an African desert as man was just learning how to sustain life. Suzuki stated that one specific characteristic separated humans from their animal counterparts; foresight. Humans understood the idea of planning and future and thus had the ability to become a ‘super race’. "We remembered, we looked ahead and took advantage of the best passage for survival." -Suzuki.

Suzuki’s approach is rather obvious; humans have the ability to see into the future -relatively speaking- and need to take action on anthropogenic impacts as opposed to ignoring them. No matter if it is the political party in power or the average person, we all need to make proper decisions and actions if change is to be positive.

Proof of human excess was expressed in examples such as; the size of a Canadian family has decreased by 50% but the average size of homes has doubled. What's the reason for the extra space? People tend to live with more stuff just b/c they have greater access to it and justify the ‘need’ for these items. Where homes made bigger b/c furniture was? Or was it the other way around? Either way it was done so that people would buy more!

After the speech I began relating the idea of a ‘super race’ that developed using foresight to all terms of human evolution. In an article I was reading it discused that when the Cartesian world view came into existence humanity began worshiping itself. This is supported in our acts of predation and the ongoing belief that everything on earth -including natural resources- BELONGS to humans. We screwed up while implementing this ideology.

Also the downfall continued when institutions started lending money that was created out of nothing. Deficits and government spending grow as currency is printed on nothing more then monopoly money; it is an illusion of a flowing economy that "…sabotaged the balance (mizan) of the natural world." It doesn’t take a genius to realize that if this keeps up there will be nothing left on the earth to produce and we will be living on a completely barren planet.

‘Natural world’ is key here. Why? In the beginning of existence "Excess in the natural order was contained because it was biodegradable." Does this sound like what we as humans do? No, we use natural resources until they are completely spent and replace them with pollution.

"When old civilizations, however opulent, profligate, greedy, or brutal, died, the forests just grew over them or the sands covered their traces. They left no pollutants, damaging poisons or nuclear waste. By contrast, and assuming we survive as a species, archaeologists excavating our present rampant civilization are going to have wear radiation protection suits."

Now finally my point. Although the earth is taking an extreme beating from poor human decision making with reference to consumption and progress that -ironically major polluters should realize- will wipe us both out, the world is smart.

After studying glacier and inter-glacier time periods and looking at the environmental and geographical history, we learned there is an ongoing trend. At present the earth is changing to respond to this change. If we use history and something called ‘foresight’ it seems logical to believe that the Earth has evolved and realized that for its own survival it must drastically reduce the human population.

Think of all the pollution and degradation humans have caused. Then think of the earth evolving and implementing disasters such as in Burma, China’s earthquakes, the 2006 Tsunami in Thailand, the list goes on. The earth is continuously removing massive populations of humans. No I am not running around screaming "the sky is falling and the oceans will swallow us whole" actually oceans swallowing us?; see Tsunami Thailand.

I am merely discussing the possibility that the Holocene extinction event -mass ongoing species extension that includes major mammals- which we live in now, has been accelerated due to anthropogenic activities. And I believe that there is a possibility that the Earth is attempting to cleans itself of its worse enemy; humans.

Now I don’t believe that massive amounts of people deserve to die, not at all. Especially when the destruction is normally in third world nations or poorer areas. Those most accountable for environmental degradation Western Nations never really feel the affect -rich nations account for 20% of the population and we consume 80% of its natural resources; APPALING. Again I don’t want people to die but it seems to me that while looking at all the evidence in climate change, natural disasters and an organism ability to adapt for survival, that the earth could do this on its own as well.

So although my belief of the earth attempting to protect its own survival against its major enemy, us, is not a science and no I am not saying that the earth is specifically out to get us -although it deserves to- it seems possible that the earth has entered its on evolutionary process as a result of anthropogenic activity and through remembering, looking ahead it is taking advantage of its best passage for survival.