Downer
I’m normally a cheery guy, but I have to admit I’m pessimistic about the future of the planet. Just today I woke up to read about polar bears dying. We humans have just been exploiting the planet willy-nilly for our short-term gains without thinking about the global picture or our responsibility as stewards.
Maybe it’s just an accident of Western-led industrialization, but I’m more inclined to think it’s part and parcel of human nature. Perhaps in any context, a pocket of humans who exploit nature are at an advantage in terms of technology and material comforts, and their numbers grow by both reproduction and affiliation. Moreover, it’s the ultimate tragedy of the commons: we all share the planet, hence we all bear the negative externalities. Thus, a pocket of eco-friendly sustainable-living humans will not reap immediate rewards and its numbers will not grow in the same (almost viral!) fashion—and numbers are what it needs to make a dent by crowding out the polluters.
It’s too bad, because I expect that, within my lifetime, the environmental crisis will grow to proportions we cannot ignore. Not even our affluence will shield us.