Epilogue

[GliderGuider]

Epilogue

Eight words precisely describe the one and only sustainable destination, “We must live in balance with the Earth.” That sacred destination has never been farther from where we now stand. So, what should animals with legendary big brains be doing? Obviously, we need to change how we think and live.

At the moment, consumer society feels little or no desire to question its mode of living and thinking. Many have chugged the Kool-Aid of the techno-wizards, and have a blind faith in the wondrous solutions promised by clever experts. Many others have little or no understanding of reality, because they suffer from ignorance, or limited ability to think. Still others can sense the growing darkness, but are paralyzed with fear and powerlessness, and block out the yucky feelings with false hope.

Nothing can stop the coming storms of change, all paths lead to turbulence. You can’t save the world. You can’t fix everything, but you can use your gifts, and do what you can to confront ignorance, protect your ecosystem, and lessen the long-term damage. There are infinite opportunities for doing beneficial work.

It will be a century of huge lessons, an era of tremendous enlightenment. No, climate change was not a hoax! Yes, there really are limits! Concepts like carrying capacity and overshoot will become well understood by any who survive. The powerful storms of the Great Healing will inspire a great tide of questioning, critical thinking, and clear understanding.

[Gregorian]

1. I saw this nearly fifty years ago. I decided not to have children.

I've done my part to try and preserve this place. Sadly, the Santorums of the world, with their monster family sizes, have negated my efforts. I don't travel for the same reason, but I have friends who travel the world just for a bike ride. Those who don't know are doing damage they can't imagine. No one seems to be able to put a stop to the stupidity. Furthermore, I now often wonder just what is right and wrong. Maybe the whole thing was supposed to evolve into a mess. Since I don't know, all I can do is watch.

[hunter]

2. My parents, and my wife's parents, had a whole mess o' kids, traditional Catholic style.

But even they stopped eventually, recognizing the limits on both the planet's and our moms' physical resources. So our parents taught us all about birth control long before we started thinking seriously about sex, and yes, absolutely contrary to their own religious faiths which celebrated their own large families.

Among our siblings, we all have zero, one, two, or three biological children, averaging less than two. We are all non-religious or overt heretics. (There are many, many heretics in the American Catholic Church when it comes to birth control...)

But there are still plenty of people in this world who are having many children, and that places an obligation on those of us who are not having a mess of children to educate those who haven't yet realized there is a problem, and yeah, that's going to include refugees from societies that are collapsing, often because of overpopulation.

Yes, my wife and I have kids, but we're all promoting the necessary heresies our parents first recognized; the first being that if you try to reproduce faster than your neighboring culture, then everyone is going to suffer. The earth has limits.

It's a very curious fear that many cultures have that they will be "outnumbered." They don't recognize their own cultures as an intellectual construct, something that can be taught; instead they see their own culture as a biological thing, which is the very essence of racism, tribalism, nationalism, and religious warfare, those very things that are killing so many of us.

I guess I'm simply reflecting on what you said. Even is we limit our own individual reproduction the problem doesn't go away. We have to reach into communities that don't yet recognize there is a problem, even into militant tribal groups that still believe they can dominate society simply by having more babies than everyone else.

[Gregorian]

4. We haven't ever had to think about limits until now. It's not part of the human nature, I believe.

It's just where we are on that exponential curve. We managed to get a whole bunch of humans on this ball in space, all at one time. And growing!

[Duppers]

3. How do you deal with those friends

"who travel the world for a bike ride"?

I'm in the very same situation-- (very comfortable) friends who travel the world for a bike rides!! Got an email from the wife about the unusually warm weather in mid December that opened the subject, so I hopped in and sent her this:
http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/the-mechanism.html?m=1

Haven't heard from her since, not even a Christmas greeting!
She must now hate me for rubbing her nose in reality. At least they don't have kids. (I have only one who's vowed not to have any.)

Sigh.

[Gregorian]

5. They're all environmentally concerned people, too. Go figure.

One is an engineer I went to school with. He believes climate change is just happening, man. Haha. But he's still concerned. And he thinks that since he has some transducers in the SF bay that haven't shown any increase in sea level, that rising oceans isn't happening. And he's a very bright person. I got so tired of him I've unplugged my phone, and have quite enjoyed the life I'm living.

The other guy flies between Taiwan house and Santa Cruz house. I keep my mouth shut.

My experience in life is that people don't know that they're doing it. We live in a modern society, yet people who drive don't have to know the manufacturing processes, and all that goes into making their car before they decide to buy or use it. It's the same as population. Everything looks nice in 1950, so build a house and have some kids. That only takes a short while before there are houses and people everywhere. It's kind of an invisible enemy.

I can't predict where it all goes. We've made progress.

[Duppers]

6. Where it goes

I agree with "Sam Carana" (my link above) and others here about where it goes. Bottom line is that we're killing our oxygen makers. We're toast-- all we can do is try to mitigate the timeline.





I'm an old female so I'm emotional but not blind about this.

[Gregorian]

7. Well we have company.

I've suffered incredibly over this. I remember in kindergarten we got on a bus and drove out to the dairy for milk. That was the SF bay area. And over my years of hunting for a place to live that wasn't trashed, I ran into old timers who saw the bay area before it was built up with houses. The stories are enough to sadden anyone. The bay boiling with seals. Or looking down from the surrounding mountains and seeing fields of flowers that look like quilts. Just as I was growing up, the open spaces disappeared. That's hard to watch.

Unfortunately, my predictions from decades ago are actually coming true. I'm trying to focus on learning and being kind to myself.

[Duppers]

8. Your last sentence...

that was much easier for me before I had my son. Parenthood comes with its own neurosis.