It’s true. Global warming really doesn’t bother me. The fact that the weather is changing somewhat isn’t much of a problem, although it does mean that sometimes I don’t get the grass cut when I want to ‘cos it’s raining and we seem not to get the good ol’ winter freezes that I remember. But that’s the way it is right now and it may get worse. Thing is, global warming isn’t going to go away and the chances are that whatever else the human race does, it’s likely to put an end to this planet sooner or later. Global warming, that is. Mind you, Mother Earth is all we’ve got right now so we should still do the best we can for the old girl.
But I’m still not worried.
By the way, if you’re already working yourself up into a hissy-fit because you think we can save the place and yada-yada-yada, please read the whole piece because I think things will work out—just not the way people expect. Then you can explode all you want.
I subscribe to a school of thinking which believes, for example, that everything in the whole Universe is put in its place by whoever/whatever created it in order to perfect—to become the perfect whatever-it-is. Plants, animals insects, fish, reptiles and all the rest. Everything quietly getting along (depending where it is in the food chain) with its own abilities, skills and specialities.
Then we turn up. Same job—to perfect into the best human race we can be (note that I said ‘human race’ meaning the species as a whole, not individual humans). Good news for us, maybe not so good for the planet.
We’ve come a long way since we branched off from the rest of the primates. Learned to use tools, to make tools, to feed ourselves on an ongoing basis, to use other animals for transport and labour before we worked out how to make machinery to do the same thing. Weapons so that we can hunt for food and, with a bit of adaptation, fight one another, starting on a one-to-one basis and working up to wholesale delivery of mass destruction.
We’ve learned how to live in tribes, in nations, in a civilisation. We’re still finding that difficult, though, given what I see in politics, religion and similar discourse. We keep rubbing one another up the wrong way and eventually it leads to a shouting match (best case) or a punch-up on a scale from individuals to whole nations (worst case).
‘Twas ever thus and it will continue to be thus. At least until the human race (let’s shorten that to HR) grows up.
Going back to that school of thought I mentioned; another of its beliefs/teachings is that the HR, if its evolutionary journey were to be compared against a human life-span, is currently around two years old. Maybe a month or three over that age. Think about the two-year-old toddlers you may have come across…
Wilful, noisy, prone to disobedience, given to tantrums if they don’t get what they want and with a tendency to break their toys on a regular basis, often by using them to hit someone or something. It may be that it is some sort of ‘what happens when I do this?’ experiment, equally it may be simply that hitting something with something else makes a satisfying noise. Then our toddler gets all miffed because the toy doesn’t work any more.
So that, currently, is the state of the HR. And you wonder why it gets into trouble.
And just think how long it’s going to take for the HR to grow up and stop breaking things. And how much longer than that it’s going to take for the HR to perfect.
So we’re going to need a supply of new planets to live on for a long, long time. And the Creator will keep providing them, just like any other parent, because the HR has to learn, just like any other toddler, about the consequences of its actions.
Problem; no planets. Well, there’s Mars but it’s pretty much used up already and anyway, there’s no atmosphere. Not really conducive to the HR’s further development. All the other ones, assuming that we can find the equivalent of Earth orbiting a G-type main-sequence star, are way too far out of reach given current or even foreseeable technology. But there are other ones.
How do we get there? Bit of a poser, that. Depends on your belief system.
If you’re of the opinion that we come from nothing, live our lives and die into nothing then it will be a really long wait for the scientists to find and then create the means to travel to another planet. If your belief is that we come from the Creator, live, die and then go either to Heaven or Hell it’s not really a problem because you’ll be out of it anyway. If, like me, you see reincarnation as a viable option then you’re in with a shout because that’s a really good way of moving people around the Universe without having to worry about the transportation system.
I’m pretty much convinced that this planet is going to be FUBAR, one way or another (global warming, nuclear war, asteroid collision, insert-your-disaster-here), long before the HR gets beyond primary school. I’m also pretty much convinced that the Creator is perfectly well aware of this and has got some nice new toys (sorry, planets) lined up for us to use. Before this one is past saving, some of us will already be on the next place getting it ready for the waves of immigrants to come.
Maybe this Earth is kindergarten. The next one is primary school. And so on. And the human race will continue to use ’em up and wear ’em out until it learns—properly—what “dominion over the Earth” really means.
Meanwhile, I’m still not worried about global warming…