There are three issues that top the scale for their overall impact on the progression of human society in the 21st century.
They are:
1) Water: Human beings are mostly water. The earth is mostly covered in water.
2) Trash: Humans generate ever increasing amounts of trash. The earth is mostly covered in trash.
3) Energy: Human beings consume ever increasing amounts of energy.
Water tops the list because it is absolutely necessary to sustain human life. Our bodies cannot survive without a reliable supply of clean, potable water. Our food cannot be grown without water. And water plays host to most of the organisms that threaten our health. Additionally, water is used for cleaning. From the food we eat to the plates we eat it off of, to the waste our bodies eventually turn that food into, we keep our surroundings sanitary by using water.
Energy is at the bottom of the list because it is absolutely unnecessary to sustain human life. We are blessed with bodies that can generate all the energy they need to survive, from sources available in our surroundings. We can eat wild foods and clothe and shelter ourselves with the by-products of other animals, plants and minerals. Energy is important because it feeds human ambition. Energy produced by means other than our own body's digestion of food, is what allows humans to engage in activities other than survival. Energy allows for progress. Energy feeds our egos and makes us feel important.
Trash lands in the middle. There is no escaping our trash, but trash functions to serve the other two issues. How we manage our trash determines for how long our water supply remains pure and healthful. How we manage our trash determines how long we can pursue the production and consumption of energy before we choke on the by-products. Trash management acts to maximize the sustainability of both water and energy.
In order to direct human activity towards health, achievement and sustainability, these are the three issues that must be addressed.
Good luck, to all of us.
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Ah, yes. In the physical world these are three of the most important. I will have to think a bit more as to whether they are the only ones.
ReplyDeleteBut there is the human spirit and ingenuity. It is hard to believe that the oceans will be erased. The question is can ingenuity that brought us the computer figure out how to convert sea water into drinkable water.
There are large parts of the world now that are surviving, though barely, without the most rudimentary public health facilities. Yet there are examples in other parts of the world that would move these civilizations forward maybe 100 years.
If sea water could be desalinized and purified, what about excrement. Farmers have composted animal waste for centuries through a natural phenomenon. It was less than a century ago the cassandras were telling us that in a few years New York City would be uninhabitable because we would be buried in horse manure. Then the horseless carriage was developed.
Similarly, in my lifetime we have been told three times that the availability of fossil fuels will disappear in twenty years. Yet at the end of each of the two decade periods, these same people made the same dire forecasts unchallenged.
As people started catching on, a new threat had to be created. So we have a group of political scientists who have come up with a theory that man can effect the makeup of this planet's systems. At the same time the ecological scientists point at evidence that perhaps within a few generations we will be entering the next great Ice Age.
No, free men and women have seen the opportunities in the great challenges that humanity faces. By accepting these challenges they have moved humanity forward at what is now a much more rapid pace.
I think you have done a great job in identifying the three largest opportunity areas. There is no question these challenges are great as have been the ones for each preceding generation. I know you are grasping the opportunity in one of the three areas.
I feel very comfortable that you and your generation will succeed in an amazing fashion. I don't just mean with your with your ingenuity, but your ability to deal with the powerful forces that will marshal against you to protect their status quo.
There is enormous power in the ingenuity of the human being. It has been overpowering those forces that want to control them since Adam appeared on earth. It won't be easy but you will do it if you don't lose faith.
Don't forget. Welcome the problems that come into your life because you need the gifts they bear in their hands.
Thanks for the response.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up many different issues in your response. What they all have in common is water, trash and energy.
Sea water desalinization: clearly a water issue, but also effects the other two. Energy is required to create and run a desalinization plant and both processes produce trash as a by-product. Thus by solving one issue, you add to the load on the other two.
Horse waste in New York: was replaced by vehicle emissions. The predictions of us choking on our waste were correct, we just changed the type of waste we were dealing with and bought ourselves 100 years. Hopefully the next change will last longer.
Running out of sources of energy: is not much of a threat. Actually the opposite is more the case. The abundance of cheap sources like coal and oil has allowed us to consume more and more cheap dirty energy, leaving trash in its wake.
I too believe we will find ways to make these things work to our advantage. The conversation on solutions is a long and varied one. But, one can see that these three issues are at the root of all of our endeavors.
Healthcare/Modern Medicine = #4
ReplyDeleteNice boil down into 3 parts.
ReplyDelete"Simplicity is the peak of civilization" - Jessie Sampter
We just gotta keep finding ways to work together instead of make the other side of the political spectrum look bad. (Cuz Stephen)
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