Too Stupid To Notice

June 18, 2010

When you hit 90 you are entitled to be listened to carefully. Scientist James Lovelock has been a voice articulating a vision of a united self regulating organism called earth for much of his adult life. Now, at that magical number 90, he believes the human family is too stupid to save itself. I agree, and I am only 67 and 11/12th s –

There is nothing that describes us any better. We have the data. We see what is happening before our eyes. And…we continue as if nothing is the matter and all will be fine if we trust in either God or technology to save us; or both. I trust neither to save us. I trust the human who has been given a free will and a brain to use both in the time of crisis; yet we seem to use neither.

Back to the creator of the Gaia hypothesis; Sir. James Lovelock. My mentor Dr. John Seeley died at 95 – a wise and benevolent man he and I would often discuss ‘the end times’ and how that all might come about. On occasion we would introduce the possibility of nuclear holocaust and felt in the end that was unlikely. Ultimately we felt that the environments neglect would be impossible to rectify and like Lovelock felt that the unraveling of creations web of interaction and inter connectedness would make it harder and harder for the 7 billion of us to survive. We wrestled with the class 4 viruses that are carried about by the air we breathe and felt they might take a hold someplace and eradicate millions over-night, but that the earth could tolerate massive epidemics. On the other hand, sea level rise, if a catastrophic collapse of ice shelves worldwide were to occur and the sea would rise perceptively ‘over-night’ we would not be able to cope, even in the developed countries like ours. Lovelock advises building barriers already!

The realization of the macrocosm of the human family becoming increasingly stupid about what is happening is sadly reflected in many with whom I am in contact who deny the reality of the global change taking place. All I can say is that my well educated friends, all of who will continue to be my friends unless they choose to distance themselves further from me, and I am already seeing the big P in the hands of many; P for pariah!, are stupidly buying into the rhetoric that all is OK and all we have to do is keep the economic engine running and that technology will fix it all.

As a sailor I check the barometer before setting out in my 8 ft Dyer Dinghy sailing pram. The precautionary principle is second nature to anyone who hikes, sails, flies a plane, white water kayaks, hang glides, or goes outdoors when rain is forecast. In other words, we already have built into our DNA the willingness to plan and prepare so as not to be blindsided by a line squall, or running out of gas, or facing a freak snowstorm in July or rain in March in California.

Why are we so darn stupid about the big picture? The OIL SPILL may well indeed signal the end of civilization as we know it. I had no idea when I committed to writing a blog for 156 weeks that the day in December in 2012 looms as the day of prediction about the future! Please help me understand why our hubris prevents us from seeing the future.