Keep It Down

Anyone with half a brain knows that global warming is happening and that humans are the cause. There is so much evidence that there is almost no doubt that the planet is in trouble. Of course there's a 1% chance that thousands of "experts" and "unexperts" (like myself) might be wrong. But really the evidence is overwhelming.

Yet at the latest meeting of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), politicians badgered scientists to alter the powerful language in their latest report. The report outlines the level of destruction and extinction that will be caused by human induced climate change. According to the report up to 30 per cent of the Earth's species face an increased risk of vanishing if global temperatures rise 2 C above the average in the 1980s and '90s. In Africa by 2020, up to 250 million people are likely to be exposed to water shortages. In some countries, food production could fall by half. And this is just the start.

Sounds like this beautiful planet is in big, big trouble. And for the first time humans are realizing that we are just one renter among many on this planet. Furthermore, it's not like these are "fringe" scientists either; they are the "leaders" in their fields. They have been studying these changes for decades. Thanks to the meddling of government lackeys, many of these scientists have pledged to discontinue their participation in the IPCC.

So why make trouble for these scientists if the facts are there? What could these states be thinking? Who are they protecting?

The truth is that our whole civilization is based on taking, destroying, pillaging. There is nothing but death in our approach to the planet. Everytime we start our cars in the morning, eat avocados in Canada, buy that new motherboard, go to Mexico on vaction, take a warm bath, brush our teeth, we are expressing our death wish for the planet. We think we are entitled to all these luxuries and close our eyes to the destruction that they are causing. I'm as guilty as the next person and so are you.

No amount of sustainable development or technological innovation will trump the reality that our industrial species is killing the planet. This is probably the most dismal realization that I have ever had and I feel pretty helpless.

People aren't able to hear this truth yet. I'm not sure if they ever will be and that we will have to be the last species to disappear from the earth in our ignorance. In our cancer wards, in our international terminals, in our open heart surgeries, we are all blinded by supposed luxury.

I'm of course offering no hope but there are things that could be done.

• We need a massive population reduction, beyond anything we can comprehend. We are well beyond the earth's carrying capacity for our species; just because we can feed everyone and house everyone doesn't mean that it's sustainable. I read once that the ideal human population for this planet is 1 million. Think about it.
  
• Industries would have to shut down completely since they are poisoning the air and the water and killing species not to mention contributing to climate change. I imagine that some would remain but be very small scale and focused on producing parts locally for bicycles and constructing true necessities.
• Humans would have to accept that they will only know a small area for most of their lives. A positive is that we would actually learn the rhythms of our places and come to appreciate them for what they are, our homes. To achieve this reality cars, trains, airplanes, segways and other destructive modes of transportation would have to be abandoned immediately.
  
• Food cultivation would have to be localized. Crops would have to be appropriate to one's local climate and seeds saved and treasured. Vegetarianism might not be possible in Canada and other northern climates.
  
• If it's dark outside humans would have to just go to sleep. I had a friend who lived in central Africa in a remote village and he said that if it was dark you just slept and you rose with the sun. A natural rhythm to life.
  
• We would have to close all coal and nuclear power plants. They both produce poison as their end product. Electricity is not worth that price. Though I don't know much about hydro power, dams and other blockages would have to be broken to allow the earth's rivers and streams to choose their own paths. Though I will miss my computer, I'll survive unlike on our present course.
  
• The education system would have to change to teach children real skills including farming, shoemaking, tanning, knitting, butchery, hunting and fishing. Perhaps there would be no formal schooling though I still think that art, reading and writing have value.
• We would have to bid farewell to the state. True democracy is local, small and intimate as the Greeks knew and decisions would have to be made locally. The state is violence and control embodied. If your society's form of organization is based on violence how can your behaviour not express that truth.
• This is an incomplete list of course but feel free to add more in the comments or tell me I'm crazy and why.
  

It's going to be hard but we are just another animal on this earth and we've forgotten that. We do not have the right to choose to destroy this planet when other beings' lives are at stake.

Ultimately it comes down to a simple question that states don't want us to consider: Do we want to survive indefinitely without some luxuries or do we want to continue to take and destroy in the short term until we kill ourselves and our perfect home? Both choices will be painful but one infinitely more so.