Given my current bout of gout, I’ve had a lot of time to read stuff I’d normally skim and put aside to be read in the future. This pile is, frankly, so high that it should be renamed the Never Never Read. Still, for the moment at least, I do have some time and have read some things which have made me extremely miserable.
For quite a while now (I’m measuring in years) I like to think I’ve been quite responsible in terms of my carbon usage. Obviously I could always do better. The fact that in 2020 we’re going to try and not use air transport as much as we do, opting for trains instead, helps. I like to think. There’s also my general hatred of cars
Then you read something and realise it’s all a complete waste of time. All it does is gently soothe my own moral sympathy nerves, knowing I’m aware and doing my best. Mind you, that is generally within my own comfort zone. Still. I reckon I’m better than lots of other people.
All that aside, the most disturbing thing I read yesterday concerned any trade negotiations between the UK and the US. Of course, this is something that will be happening now we have our new Tory Dictatorship in place. According to the article I read, any talk of climate change and environment is banned.
It’s important to let that sink in.
It means that if our trade delegation was concerned about the carbon effect of air miles, too bad. If our trade delegation was concerned about the effects of large scale countryside destruction, it’s off the table. If we dislike the fact that an American product contains palm oil and that’s not good for Orang-utans and the Indonesian rainforests, that is just not important.
What is important is the protection of American big business. What they feel is more important is that their pockets remain well lined. In a world of finite growth, big business wants to make sure they are the last ones to grow.
Another frightening thing I read was how some big companies take out insurance against people who stop using their products. The need for this is clearly demonstrated by this:
Angela Merkel’s German government is to face a lawsuit filed by Swedish state-owned utility Vattenfall at the Washington-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes next week. World Nuclear News reports that Vattenfall is suing for a reported €4.7bn ($6bn) in damages as a result of the enforced closure of Brunsbüttel & Krümmel nuclear power plants ordered by the German government as part of a decision to phase out nuclear power in 2011.
Power Engineering International, 13 Oct 2016: https://www.powerengineeringint.com/2016/10/13/swedish-state-utility-to-sue-german-government-over-nuclear/
And that was three years ago. I have also found a story about a Peruvian man who sued a German company (RWE) because, he claimed, they were responsible for the fact that a glacier was melting due to climate change and was about to engulf and destroy his village. Of course he did it for money. I should stress that the money was for flood defences. That was in 2017.
I have a theory why this is happening and why it’s going to be impossible to stop. My theory won’t be popular but it makes a lot of sense and, perhaps, will explain why this planet will be uninhabitable by 2050. And when I say ‘uninhabitable’ I mean by humans. The world won’t die. It will do what it has always done. The world will just change and to hell with whatever species cannot adapt. Like humans.
Every species on this planet regardless of what it is, is primarily, greedy and lazy. This is why species survive. The maximum amount of input for the minimum amount of output. Lions are a good example. When food, security and sex are plentiful they sleep for around 23 hours a day. (One of our dogs is very much the same.)
A species can only survive with security, water, food, sex and sleep. There’s a lot of wanky theories that say otherwise, however, on a basic level, that list is pretty much it. Try taking one away and see what happens.
However, to achieve those basics, it’s necessary to be both greedy and lazy. After all, if it takes all day to reach and eat an apple high in a tree, it stands to reason that eating something nearer to the ground would be a much better option. It might not taste as good but it’s certainly cheaper in terms of output.
I think the above explains why fast food chains work. It’s quick and easy and cheap. The facts that most fast food is either bad for you or tasteless is unimportant. They depend on a species’ instinct to eat whenever it can to ward off the bad times.
If you look at the world through the Greedy and Lazy Lens, it’s easy to see why climate change is happening and why it’ll never be stopped in time to ensure our continued survival. Just like the lion has no idea that it’s world is being radically changed by its continual reduction by farmers. And lions.
Every time a lion is killed by a gun, that lessens the population of lions. That should mean more resources for the other lions but when the resources are being reduced as well…less lions. Try having sex with a corpse and see how far that goes.
Look at Australia. Appalling bush fires year after year, getting worse. The air in Sydney almost unbreathable (worse than Beijing in some places). The longest droughts in known history. And yet, the country denies there’s a problem and continues extracting coal.
As a single example of short sightedness, electric car uptake is the lowest in Australia than in most other developed countries. Petrol is much more preferred. Noisy, smelly, atmosphere killing petrol.
I know there’s excuses for why Australia needs to use petrol. I don’t care. It just proves my point that our species is lazy and greedy. Excuses excuse nothing. It’s happening.
Actually, the biggest problem isn’t with other species. It’s not really with our own. The problem, as far as I see it, is the fact that we evolved a big brain. A big brain which was capable of destroying not only great swathes of its own but also its habitat. Plenty of animals are violent against their own however none of them have created nuclear weapons. That takes a big brain.
A stupid big brain, sure.
If it is the evolution of our big brain then it has to be natural. We are part of the natural world just like everything else on this planet. We, like the lions and the yew trees, the aphids and the roses, are all part of how the world works. The fact that our big brain has allowed us to be the ultimate greedy and lazy species is clearly a natural event. A real climax event in our case.
Termites are the single biggest natural methane producers on this planet. Just imagine if termites had their way. They’d just eat everything. If they had the means to destroy any prey and had created a means to travel across vast oceans, they would dominate the planet. Being lazy and greedy, they would eat themselves out of existence.
Basically, we’re doing the same thing and it’s entirely natural.
I started this by saying I found my current reading was making me miserable but now I’m at the end, I feel rather good. I think I’ll avail myself of everything this planet has before it’s gone. Why not? Everybody else does.
