"What are you going to do about the horrors you identify?"

There is very little that can be done:

1. Florida's environment is essentially destroyed and will not recover for millennia (after human impacts have come to an end).

2. The Native Americans who were killed or expelled from their own lands are now long gone. This is crime which is beyond the reach of atonement.

3. The cycle of ecological destruction which has reached its climax in places such as Haiti are also beyond repair within any time fram meaningful to humans. The penalty for humankind's sins in these areas will continue for many generations of relentless suffering.

4. The corporations have already stolen the natural resources from the impoverished people of the world, including among them the unfortunate people of Nigeria and Equador. The people who have committed these crimes and the people who have profited from these crimes and the people who have benefited from these crimes are not going to apologize to their victims. History is filled with injustice, injustice continues today, and in the future humans will continue to act in an unjust manner.

5. Oil's despicable historical relationship with warfare & the technology of war was mentioned in a History channel documentary today. A hundred million victims of oil-fuelled violence in the 20th century might object to all the supposed benefits of the fossil fuel lifestyle, except they will not because they are all dead. The mourning ceased a long time ago and we all can concentrate on more important things today like buying cell phones and iPods.

6. Future generations will object to the ravenous consumption that this generation committed as it sought to exhaust the Earth's resources at the fasting pace possible. But these people are not yet alive and their suffering is of no concern to the vast majority of people living today. Hell, the massive suffering which is occurring in the world today is of no concern to the average American. If present suffering doesn't move us, future suffering won't either.

7. Future generations will also object to the vandalism of the Earth which is the global-scale pollution occurring throughout the world today. I hardly imagine that the average American cares very much about pollution. A few days ago I saw one of these oblivious fools throw a styrofoam cup out of his/her window rather than go through to minimal trouble of finding a trash can.

8. Future generations might complain about the absence of millions of species of life which were driven to extinction in the present generation's insane effort to transform the Earth into some sort of shopper's paradise. They might just watch television programs or see pictures of animals in books and then curse us all for our foolish addiction to disposable inanimate possessions which compelled us to destroy almost every living thing and the environment as well. I doubt very much that humankind's habits will change as it is extremely difficult to bring an end to genocide. If we are unwilling to stop human violence against humanity it is impossible to bring an end to human violence against nature.

***

You see, all of these problems are hopeless. There's not even the slightest glimmer of hope that the Homo sapiens are going to solve the major problems of human nature.

For that reason, I have concluded that the Homo sapiens are accelerating directly down the path to extinction. What humans are unable to accomplish voluntarily, Nature will extinguish painfully.

What will I do, then?

What I am already doing.

I will spend as much time as possible enjoying the living world, appreciating the beauty of that little bit of Nature which remains in my immediate neighborhood.

I will live at peace with every human that I meet, and mourn for all the needless suffering which is occurring throughout the world each day.

I will beg God for mercy upon humankind but not blame God for the sorrows which must come.

I will pray for Peak Oil and the end of the present technological age. The sooner that humankind is deprived of power, the better. Nature must defang the human beast because certainly humans will not.

Posted by: David Mathews | May 17, 2006 at 07:32 PM