Its a fair point but what is so depressing is that man is the only species, as far as we know, that is self-aware and has added complex reasoning to instinct. Other creatures cannot wilfully change destructive behaviour. They either evolve different behaviours or they destroy themselves or their environment and become extinct. Human beings are not in that category. We are not innocent, we understand cause and effect. We are not blind hostages to evolution and fate, we understand the consequences of our actions and the mechanics of our world and we have the intelligence to make choices and the physical ability to implement them. Yet we are also (again as far as we know) the only species to possess the characteristic of vanity, and so we flatter ourselves that our over-running and despoliation of the planet is not the catastrophe it clearly is but is some kind of perversely noble achievement. We tell oursleves that we are impelled helplessly by evolution, that we cannot help our "success" when clearly we can because we have identified and decoded the process of evolution and we know how to influence it. We could change but we do not. We have even gone to the trouble of devising creation myths, deities and religious fantasies to explain and sanctify our otherness and absolve ourselves from any responsibility for the things we do, deluding ourselves that we act from some sort of sacred imperative. We don't. It is unfortunate for a species not to possess the tools to change its behaviour for the better. It is unforgivable to have them and refuse to use them or to use them to make things worse. That is where we are now.
I should add that our rapacious and over-populating behaviour is not an evolutionary inevitability, it is a cultural choice. Before the industrial revolution human societies had existed in various parts of the world for tens of thousands of years without destroying or over-running their environment or driving a single other species to extinction. We have chosen to become a parasitic species, devouring our host world rather than living as part of it. Our behaviour is an act of free will. It is not written in the stars or our genes.
You're right about the fact that if we weren't here, the chimps would evolve and become something like us in a few million years. But maybe they won't and maybe the bonobos evolve instead and everything is sex and chilling.
Although extinction is a natural phenomenon, it occurs at a natural “background” rate of about one to five species per year. Scientists estimate we're now losing species at over 1,000 times the background rate, with literally dozens going extinct every day. Many more estimates believe this figure to actually be conservative and we are actually losing a species at many more times that rate. That Wal, is our doing, pure and simple.
I think Camels first post has been slightly over dissected. We all know what he's getting at. It's human nature to strive to improve and succeed, it's how we came from living in caves to where we are today. For millions of years we've followed along the steppingstones set by our predecessors, building on their knowledge and experience. We've learnt how to exploit everything around us to our advantage. We are all guilty of this. The population of the human race has exploded over the last century or so. This is no natural occurrence, it is because we've learnt how to manipulate our supply of food and increase its yield. Any species can not out grow it's food supply but if the food supply grows then that population will grow to match it. Where as other species take what they need from an environment to survive, we as humans posses a genetic defect called greed. We take what we need but also take more besides inorder to profit and gain power. Because we're here only a short time we look for short term gain rather than looking at the long term consequences of what we do. Even though our species has been round for millions of years our development seems to have been catapulted forwards over the last 150 years. We've gone from horse and cart and candles to technology that's almost witchcraft. So here we are today, overpopulated, greedy, destroying and exploiting everything around us in that unstoppable need to carry on improving and moving forwards. We've pulled on to a one way road where we can't stop or go backwards but just forge on ahead. Sooner or later that road will run out and we'll hit the wall. The planet earth and its nature has been here evolving for billions of years, it was here before us and it'll still be here after us, because it plays the long game. It has its own way of dealing with problems by reducing or removing them. In nature if a species becomes too successful and overcrowded then disease breaks out. If we pollute the atmosphere we see severe and adverse weather. This is what we are seeing, its nature fighting back and it will win. We are just a passing phase in the planets history. I genuinely do think with the rapid advancement of technology, abuse of the environment and the risks from the powerful and greedy we will fail in the next hundred years. All the life support we've built up will calapse and we'll be plunged into anarchy.
Increasingly I find massed humanity depressing with very few redeeming features. Fortunately, north of Kendal, there are still some areas of relative sanity.
SWMBO is currently reading https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapiens-Humankind-Yuval-Noah-Harari/dp/1846558239 but it is not a book to be skimmed and it may be some time before I get my hands on it.
While I agree with nearly all of what you said, the population expansion over the last 100 years is more to do with medicine than food I suspect. On the subject of food though, it is thought the earth can sustain no more than 9 billion. To anyone reading this thread, a docufilm called Racing Extinction is well worth 2 hours of your time.
Excellent book. Read the sequel, Homo Deus, if you really want to scare yourself.........very much in line with this thread.
Yes, our daughter bought both books for SWMBO for a birthday present and I want to read Sapiens before Homo Deus. Unless she speeds up I might have to buy my own copy.
I think it's probably a combination of the two. Advances in medicine especially penicillin and vaccines means people don't die of historic illnesses such as TB like they used to.
I agree with a lot of what you said. The bit I don't agree with is the acceleration in the last 150 years. Sure technology has changed a lot. But I don't think human nature and behaviour has. Look at figures from history such as julius Caesar and the Celtic holocaust, or gengis Khan and his 50 million death toll. Humans have always been cool with doing terrible things to anything including each other to get ahead. All that's changed is the methods employed, and with modern politics the way it's marketed to the masses to make it more palatable. We are still going around killing and raping anyone who is weaker than us to get ahead.
Yes, I was referring more to technology. History is littered with individuals who gathered power and used it for horrendous acts inorder to further themselves for their own greed and gain. We still have those sort of people, now they wear suits and hide behind laws that they've made themselves. Just like in history they have there own agendas to further themselves at the expense of others. The difference now is they don't do the dirty work themselves.
watched this the other nite, presented by david attenborough interesting stuff. https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/how-many-people-can-live-on-planet-earth/
