Monday, May 26, 2008

Evade Human Extinction Now!

Evade Human Extinction Now!

After watching The 11th Hour, an environmental film on a scale even greater than An Inconvenient Truth, I came away with several new understandings.

First of all, the climate change issue of global warming is really only the worst of a self-inflicted interconnected web of issues killing off species the world over. Together, all of these issues, from deforestation, to pollution, to killing off 90% of sea life, (something we've already done) are adding up to the perfect storm that will wipe the human species off the face of the planet in only a few generations if we don't act now. It isn't just global warming anymore. It isn't just pollution anymore. It isn't just species extinctions anymore. It isn't just crazy weather anymore. It isn't just overflowing land fills anymore. It's Evade Human Extinction Now!

As with everything else that is a result of a collective cultural insanity, framing the issue is one major key to solving it.

This Earth will continue spinning around the Sun whether or not we exist upon it. We are making the choice, in the next ten to fifteen years, whether or not most life, including humans, will survive on this planet. It is that simple, and that direct, and that urgent.

The good news is, once we have enough awareness built up out there, and the collective grass roots will to change, human society is capable of changing quite radically in a very short time. If Detroit can completely retool in six months during the 1940's from making cars to making tanks and airplanes, so can the rest of global industry.

Already, per The 11th Hour, there are over one million environmental activist organizations around the world beginning to act in concert to effect large scale change.

If we as a species do not follow their lead, the humankind can not survive more than another century or two on this planet. If we get it together, and work together, we can have a long and healthy run on this planet, and beyond. We can save the future of innumerable other species as well, many of which our own survival depends on in subtle but critical ways.

Watch The 11th Hour all the way through, and you'll see an integrated presentation of the problems we face during the first half. That alone is more than most other films on such subjects have achieved. Many present only one facet of a larger picture. The 11th Hour goes on to also present an integrated array of solutions. If there were unlimited time, perhaps many of those solutions could be explored more in depth, but there is plenty there to present the overall picture of a society of solutions instead of a society of destruction or of regression.

It is NOT necessary to go back to stone knives, berries, roots, and wearing skins. It is simply necessary to re-design modern society to be able to function withing the available resources and that preserves the diversity of life on this planet, including humans. Additionally, many possible resources we have available that would be beneficial instead of harmful are grossly under-utilized. In a strange way, this is actually good news, as it gives us something good to change TO.

Critically important is the concept that every person in global society votes, regardless of their age, every single time they make a purchase. Granted, what happens in the political voting booth has huge repercussions, but every day we vote with every bit of currency we spend as well.

So, to Evade Human Extinction Now, what we really need to do is love and respect life, use forms of energy that are beneficial to life, and respect the rights of nature to coexist with us. If we don't respect the rights of natural systems to exist, they will ultimately fail - and no technology can save us from the loss of our own right to exist.

Evade Human Extinction Now! - Our grandchildren and great grandchildren will be very grateful for it, and even we ourselves will end up with better lives as a result.

Choose life. I know we can do it. What I don't know is if we will do it.

With great hope,

Dan Stafford
Publisher: The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal
Publisher: The 1st Church of Healing The Earth


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