Thursday, December 6, 2018

Humans are Doomed

Our fate is sealed. The carbon dioxide cycle continues at a slightly faster rate, but our carbon dioxide production grows faster. Spaceship earth will become a carbon dioxide death trap, with no escape, except for perhaps a few that can breath well enough to live in a high Co2 atmosphere. After the population drops, plants will take up that Co2 and lock it back into fixed carbon, and the next species of homo can do this all again. That is reality folks. As we die off, oh well. We all die off, and nature will take care of earth, not humans. We humans can make our own way, individually, or as small groups, or as a population, if we have leaders, educators, and enough courage to learn.

Ethics, doing what is right to do, even when it is not easy, must be the foundation of going forward from here. This must be founded on survival as a species, or at least the foundation for the next species, which is more likely, as we animals are always in transition, the examples we have are also in transition, until failure of the line occurs, and sooner or later, it always does, or has in the past. We humans have caused the extinction of many species. Oh well, in the end we just die anyway. Death is always with us, looking back, it always has been. We can choose to ignore death, until it grabs us, or we can look at it and understand it; it is the end of life. Where does the light go when you  turn out a lamp? Life is similar, life is, death is just not life. Life has value, death not so much. We, as individuals are doomed.

Ethics likely came to humans before religions grabbed on to them, and tried to upgrade them. We need to go back and understand the foundations, we want to live, flourish and prosper. To do that, we need cooperation of all humans, so the contract of reciprocity, equality, symmetrical treatment, whatever we call it, was developed. Historically we saw this with the Indians in North America in the Six Nations. Historically the nations states of Athens and Sparta started in a big way. We can surmise  similar happened elsewhere, and once peace is established, we just forget and carry on in flourishing. Occasionally there is an issue, and a civil war occurs, but the problem is resolved, and we carry on. But there is no easy solution for flourishing too well.

First, to keep the peace, we need to prevent any group from teaching hatred and violence to their young. That means we must give up hatred and violence. Not going to happen in the foreseeable. Humans are therefore doomed. Oh well. Equality must be enacted at the same time. And to help with the population control, a one child policy until the Co2 comes under control. Population needs to decrease to something like 1/2, oil production to 1/5, coal to 1/3, long term to match Co2 production and absorption. Oh well. Population controls everything, if we have the will.

Greed drives humans. That is a biological fact that can be observed in free living humans everywhere. We like comfort, ease, security, heat, light, and will tolerate some work, exertion, and the like when conditions are right. This work, effort must be ethically driven. Religions may have been the first way to try to force the non compliant into line. Perhaps we religion, but without any gods. Reason based religion to develop society. Starting with the foundation of ethics, through reciprocity, flourishing, to satisfactions. We currently admire run-a-way success, but this also needs to be capped... somehow. Some sort of succession duty, wealth redistribution, or the like. 

  

1 comment:

  1. I agree that over population is a problem for the carrying capacity of the earth for life. To overcome this problem, the world needs to implement China's one child policy.

    The bad news is, the United States (maybe Trump) withdraws from world cooperation on climate change.

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