So Why Do I Write These Articles?

Why am I so interested in writing these articles?  What purpose do they serve?  Sometimes, I ask these questions of my self and sometimes others have asked me.  My mind is always racing, looking for the one answer that will satisfy everyone including myself.  I can’t pinpoint it to one thing except, I am feeling that there is an unquestionable urgency.  I really need to inform others about the very possible future.  I always have this inner desire to correct social injustice.  I always have had been for the “underdog” and I don’t like to see the “big bullies” having their way all the time.  Everyone should have a voice without having to compete with the big thugs who can buy their influence and take over the smaller guys!  Every one should be sharing the resources equally and be able to encourage the enforcement of   sustainability instead of raping our planet, plundering it into a environmental nightmare.

I look at our situation on this planet as a racing car.  We feel competent in our skills and abilities to handle the vehicle, feeling comfortable knowing that everyone is on board with our infallible guidance systems.  But we are racing at unbelievable speed, accelerating faster and faster.  Do we really know what is around that corner?  No one really does even the scientists and technological gurus, but do we want to continue at this speed under such a high risk?  Or do we need to navigate carefully at a more sustainable speed?  One mistake that is overlooked by our powers to be, and that is it – our vehicle has become a runaway, out of control, heading for uncharted territory.  That’s it.  Done.  There is no return.  Our runaway vehicle is taking us into a dangerous, an irreversible situation, and no one and nobody can stop it.    This is called a “tipping point”  Our vehicle is our planet Earth and, the whole of humanity is on board with no way of escaping.  It doesn’t matter who you are – a citizen of a small farming comunity, a CEO of some corporation, a peasant of a poor country, or a politician --  we are all riding together in this racing car.  Racing on at unbelievable speeds!

We have several crises.  We already know about the economic crisis.  But others, we either ignore, or let others worry about it – it’s not my problem.  The Global Warming Crisis, The Peak Oil Crisis,  The Water Scarcity Crisis,  The Ecosystem Collapse Crisis,  The Famine Crisis.  Just to name a few.  These are all related to each other and most have their roots in our Population Explosion, and our huge Disparity Between the Rich and Poor.  Tipping Points are present in all of these and they can come anytime but, usually they are always unexpected.  And, there is a good chance when we are facing one crisis, because of the domino effect, that another one is just around the corner.

Ignorance, I feel, is no excuse.  The information is there, we just need to seek it out.  By turning our backs on what is happening, we think it will just go away.  It won’t!  And it will hit you when you least to expect it to.  Like a flash flood ( take Pakistan for example) , or an unexpected tornado ( like the one that hit Joplin, Missiouri)  or even a sudden gush of wind ( collapsed roof at a concert).  So what are we supposed to do?  Is there another reason for informing you?  Yes, there is.

First of all, I sure wouldn’t want to be living on this planet in the next twenty years.  The environment we have taken for granted for so long, will change in sudden, unexpected ways.  All aspects of our modern, technological society will experience a downfall of epic proportions.  It will be a hostile world, with extremes in climate (mostly regional instead global), struggles everywhere for safe and abundant water, food, and fuel.  People trying to escape but unable to find a safe place to go to. Secondly,  I can’t believe that people don’t really see what is happening.  Are we really that blind?  We have this inner sensation that we know the climate is changing, but we don’t want to be believe that we are the cause of it.  We keep burning our fossil fuels faster and faster, cutting our forests indiscriminately, depleting our fisheries, destroying nature’s habitats, creating toxic waste sites for our future generations.  Bully for us, although, it should read, SHAME on us. We must run out of oil and natural gas sometime, and it may be sooner than you think.  Our appetite for energy has placed an unbelievable stress on our planet.  We can’t possibly keep going on this course of abundance without something breaking down.  Put enough stress on any system and it is bound to break down.

So what does one do?  Don’t rely on some elected politician, or some corporation official, or some innovative, technological marvel to save us.  Unfortunately, we may not be able to change our habits in time.  The problem is inertia, not inability.  People are doing things the way they always have, content to believe that things won’t change.  We are addicted to our way of life – automobile, shopping, electronic gadgetry, fast food, energy consumption, our dominance over the rest of the world (our way of living is far “superior” to other societies).  This addiction has produced uncontrollable and life-threatening scenarios.  It is very difficult to put the brakes on when you are constantly accelerating.  Actually, people don’t realize that they could have a much higher standard of living for longer if they used the planet’s resources sustainably.  They don’t understand that the ability of nature to keep providing will falter if they don’t.

So, if we don’t have the will power to slow these processes down, or the know-how, or the moral and ethical feelings to change our perception of our world, WHAT can one do?   

BE PREPARED!  Think locally,  Work with your neighbours, develop skills necessary to survive in a new world.  These are excellent coping mechanisms to survive in a more hostile, but back to the basics type of society.  United we stand!  Get involved in survival courses, prepare survival kits, work with the community for survival plans and develop the necessary skills to overcome hardships.

One last note.  The sad part is that we are leaving our children and grandchildren a scary, frightening world.  And they don’t deserve it.  We should take responsibility for what is happening and what is going to happen.  We are all part of this.  Our children and grandchildren have done nothing wrong.  We have. And skip the “blame game”.  It just won’t help.