We've heard the reports about global dimming and a much more accelerated rate of global warming than initially anticipated. The permafrost is disappearing from some of the icy regions of the earth and as more ice continues to melt, it will release vast amounts of methane into the atomosphere, accelerating global warming even further. Added to this, each year approximately areas the size of wales are clear felled in the Amazon rainforest to make way for growing soy plants to feed chickens. The soy industry is so profitable that those doing the clear felling don't want to stop it. However, the Amazon rainforest is critical for the balance of the earth and continual erosion of it will also accelerate global warming. Already, there are parts of the Amazon that have been experiencing drought, where it had never been experienced before.
The burning of fossil fuels also contributes to global warming, and given the shaky state of affairs in the middle east, fuel prices have been sky rocketing, even though reserves have not been exhausted - it is a fear tax. Ethanol very quickly emerged as an alternate solution (surely known about for a long time, but only emerging when the situation is pressed). Hybrid cars are emerging, but the price is still very prohibitive to enable large scale purchase of such cars. In order to make the changes required to protect the planet, big business would have to be willing to change their way of thinking from 'maximum profit' to 'adequate profit'. However, we've been in such a thought space of continuing to drive for higher and higher profits for so long, usually pooling into the pockets of very few and have rewarded those with cut throat lack of conscience, ergo 'those who don't care about anyone else are the most likely to suceed and to profit'. When we value that as 'good business' we breed into power a group of psychopaths - taking what they can for their own personal satisfaction in the here and now and leaving a ravaged legacy for the generations to come.
Unmitigated greed seems to be leading to the world spiralling out of control. Ultimately, I think this will lead to the fall of our civilisations, as has happened time and again in the past. It is a very real probability that within 100 years large areas of the earth will have become inhabitable - subject to drought and mass extinction of those living in those areas. Much large scale loss of life will be likely to continue in the interim due to more severe weather patterns. It is also a real probability that a lot of land mass will be lost to the waters as the oceans continue to rise due to the polar melt.
Is it too late to try and reverse these patterns? Is it inevitable that humans will yet again not learn until it is too late? Big business works on supply and demand - what can we do, the people of the earth, to take our demand power out of the control of big business and put it into business that will provide sustainable solutions for the earth and attempt to slow down and/or reverse the path we are on now?
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