The Third Step

From the very moment our ancestors climbed down from the trees and walked upright across the savannahs of Africa, humans have left their mark wherever they went. At times, those marks have not been either terribly attractive or even pleasant. From the time humans invented the wheel, assuming, of course, that we invented it, each new advance in technology has proven to be less than beneficial to the planet than might be hoped for. Shortly after the domestication of the horse, humans (with the same proviso as given for the wheel.) invented the saddle. This made the pace of things going from bad to worse that much faster. Now instead of having to walk all the way to your neighbors’ village to beat the hell out of them you could ride there in relative comfort. In addition, if you put a box on top of a couple of the wheels that you made, you could then lug all of his stuff back to your village and not have to go back again and again and again. I believe that is what is referred to as effective time management.

Considering our track record, Mankind’s entry into the nuclear age certainly does not hold the promise that it once did for us as a species or, for that matter, any species that is not us. I do believe that all the other species share my concern about the future. As Bill Bryson has pointed out, “life, in short just wants to be. …for the most part it doesn’t want to be much.” How else can you explain the lichens that grow in Antarctica? They can’t be terribly ambitious can they? Another concern ,this one raised by Jared Diamond, is a new one for me. At what point will the human population, with its ceaseless need for food, begin farming to the point where the planet reaches and exceeds its photosynthetic capacity? Isn’t that neat? Aren’t you happy, now you have something brand new to worry about, just when you were thought that you were running out of things to worry about. In his book, A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson made an observation of humans that bears repeating:

Of the small portion of the planets surface that is dry enough to stand on, a surprisingly large amount is too hot or cold or dry or steep or lofty to be of much use to us. Partly, it must be conceded, this is our fault. In terms of adaptability, humans are pretty amazingly useless.