The Hard Truth

‘Ignorance is bliss’…a statement that assumes one can maintain such ignorance. And as hard as you may try, it will never be enough. Because the truth is all around you. Soon it will be plain unavoidable. What am I talking about?

The irrevocable human impact on Earth.

Now before I divulge, let me say that this is not going to be a scientific post. Why? Because I don’t need to throw facts at you for you to see the changes humans have made to the environment. And you don’t need to be highly educated either. If you’re still arguing against the reality of climate change, depletion of resources, extinction of species and the human responsibility for it, you’re an idiot.

Let’s begin with the one creature that is most definitely safe from extinction: humans.

Now it is and it isn’t completely our fault. Because…

1) Sex feels good.

2) Sex can lead to babies.

3) Babies have no clue WTF is going on…and eventually melt into the dominant culture, only to repeat steps 1 and 2.

An over-simplified description of the average mortality, but if we’re talking about a global effect, we need to make some generalizations. How else can we account for so many humans?

Lack of education, contraceptives and the resources to change the vicious cycle lead to the figures we have now. I just checked, its 7.6 Billion. If we were ants, that number would be completely fine…but we’re not. We are the dominant species on this planet and we’ve taken advantage of every opportunity to exert our dominance, on the earth as well as on each other. What has that lead to? Colonialism, War, Injustice, War, Industrialization, War, Pollution, and you guessed it, War.

The source of all this: Greed.

When we let our ego run rampant, we cease to act with reason. Why do we now apologize to First Nations people? Not simply because colonizers abused their people for centuries, but because something went very wrong with that first introduction. Instead of learning from their wisdom of living off the land in an unselfish way, we bulldozed their ecologically sustainable lifestyle and replaced it with greed.

So when we apologize now as modern nations, for the atrocities of the past…remember that its negative impact is more apparent now than ever. And we will never stop apologizing…to them and to ourselves.

Then there’s the old argument, ‘but that wasn’t my fault’. And truth be told, its true. But how we conduct ourselves now will prove whether we deserve to be lumped with the sum of our ancestors or not. And I hate to break it to you, its not looking good.

If you want the solution, its as simple as it is unattainable: Unity. We humans lack unity among our species. We’re too busy competing with each other to actually work together for the common good. Greed and ego have broken our original bond, and as long as we continue to war against each other over our differences, the real work will be left undone.

So where do you and I fit into this? Well, if you look at the 1-2-3 model above, you can carefully navigate your biggest impact (reproduction) by using a form of birth control you are comfortable with. This way we don’t get accidental babies. Then, if you choose to have kids, think quality over quantity. You may want a large family, but there are fewer resources, such as clean drinking water, to share between today’s thirsty. I also acknowledge the unfairness of this circumstance because it is our shared misfortune to be born in a time with such a pressing civic duty. But hey, it is what it is.

My choice is to keep my fallopian tubes as decoration. Instead, I’m focusing my energy on the humans that already exist. As a public school teacher, I can educate young people so that they are empowered to innovate new ways of living that reduce our global impact. Let’s be honest, we can’t undo what has been done. But we can learn from it.

You see, at the heart of this post is optimism. Otherwise, I wouldn’t waste my words. I just hope our awareness and good conscience can surpass our bad habits.

And here is where I leave you, less ignorant and buzz killed. Sorry. But in between the funny and wild thoughts that run through my head, this one has been on repeat.

Not by choice.

*Shout out to Thomson Hawks, he wrote this quote*