Go Grey
For a long time, I’ve been somewhat environmentally conscious. I turn lights off when I leave the room. I throw my trash in the proper colored bins when I can. I turn off the sink when I brush my teeth. I use those twisty light bulbs. But I have never bought into environmentalism.
Nature is Bad-Ass
I have never believed for one minute that humans have any real power to help nature. We live here at the whim of nature. We are a part of nature. Nature has existed far longer than we have, and will continue to exist long after we’re gone. It will look back at our short time on this planet the way that we look at the dodo or the saber-toothed tiger.
Humans are children of nature. We are not some special external thing that came from some mystical place outside of nature and has come here to ruin everything. We are equal to cockroaches, dogs, bacteria, and maple trees. Are trees ruining the environment by taking away all our carbon dioxide and putting out oxygen? No, they’re supposedly great for the environment because we, as humans, like oxygen. Nature itself couldn’t care less which gas is most prominent. It will find a way to use whatever it has available.
Every living thing on this planet takes existing resources and transforms them into something else. Cows eat grass and turn it into milk, urine, and feces. Bacteria eats feces and turns it into beneficial elements for plants. When there is a large amount of anything, nature finds a way to produce something that can thrive on that resource. If poop can be a resource, so can greenhouse gases and plastics. We’re just too short-sighted to see this.
We don’t actually care about how the planet works though. The changes we are making to the world aren’t harmful to anything but ourselves. Sure, some animals will go extinct and some new ones will become more dominant. Maybe mosquitos, bacteria, and viruses will thrive in the warmer Earth. Perhaps our big coastal cities will be flooded out when the glaciers melt. Do we care that those cities will be great new habitats for marine life? Do we care that viruses and mosquitos will be happy? No. We care that our lives will be screwed up.
To be an environmentalist is not respectful to nature. It is actually as disrespectful as you can get. You are acknowledging that something that a human can do has the power to destroy nature, which is as arrogant as it gets.
Oil Disaster & Global Warming
During the BP oil spill (or the Exxon one, or any number of other ones), everyone seemed so upset about the animals being killed in that entire region. It was a huge disaster for those ecosystems, but I know they’ll bounce back. New life will spring up naturally to use the newly introduced elements in that environment as food.
Yes, it will take a long time, but it will happen. Some might call that very faith-based, but I consider it an educated guess. We wouldn’t exist today if nature wasn’t adaptable in this way. If our environment wasn’t saturated with oxygen at one point, organisms that breathe it would never have come to exist.
I feel the same way about global warming. As I mentioned earlier, having water levels rise and overtake our cities is not a planet problem, it’s a human problem. Sure, the small number of organisms that live on glaciers are going to go extinct, but that’s what happens when the resource you rely on goes away. You learn how to eat something else or you die out. The planet will not implode if polar bears go extinct. Perhaps some exotic plant that cures cancer goes extinct, but nature will be fine. We’re only screwing ourselves.
In nature, when a consumer animal thrives and becomes overpopulated, the prey of that consumer starts to dwindle and eventually goes extinct. Then, the consumer dwindles and either adapts or goes extinct. We are consumers. We are the top of the food chain. If that chain falls apart because we run out of our energy source to support our population’s weight, it collapses and we fall from the top. Unless we adapt. We are not exceptional. We are still living here at the whim of nature.
When we run out of fossil fuels, we are going to be severely fucked. This will most likely happen in my lifetime, and I can’t wait. I’d love to see us put to the test of completely changing our entire economy and social structure and see which countries make it out alive. I’ll do my best to promote things that make my environment a nicer place to live. When I need to buy a new car, I plan to get one that uses no gasoline, if possible. I want the U.S. to adapt and survive the trials ahead of us. These are all in my own self-interest, and have nothing to do with an arrogant desire to “save the world”.
Related Links:
- Netflix: A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash
We’ve Already Given Up
As a race, we’ve pretty much given up on success already. At least America has. By handicapping NASA and effectively giving up on our exploration of space, we have made a statement to the world. That statement is:
Unless you believe that we will somehow discover Atlantis or some other lost super-advanced ancient society buried somewhere here on Earth, our future here is extinction. We will run out of resources at some point and die out. Exploring other worlds for places to live — or at least “farm” for new resources to bring home — is the only way to keep us going for longer than that. It is also the thing that will determine which civilizations (or countries) are the superpower 100+ years from now.
Our money worship has corrupted us to the point that we can’t even see our own future slipping away from us. I used to think that religious people were the main ones holding us back, but I’m starting to believe that they are a much smaller part of that. We have invested far too much in our house of cards — the American economy — and not enough in the human race itself. Shiny rocks, green paper, and scraps of land have taken priority.
So screw this Green bullshit. Don’t miss out on the things you enjoy in life just because future generations might not be able to adapt to their environment. If the majority of people continue to be short-sighted about the expansion of the human race in favor of green paper and present day comfort, they’re going down in flames anyway. Go grey, and enjoy yourself while you’re still around.