RA #1

History Repeats Itself: Humankind’s Cycle of Destruction

While reading Chapter Two, The First Farmers: The Revolutions of Agriculture, I was struck by the human ability to use technology to improve and elongate lives, without consideration of the long-term effects of their technology and lifestyle on their habitats. Although the author speaks of peoples from 10,000 BCE to 3000 BCE, the behaviors and descriptions are not very different from behaviors of people today. We are extremely adaptable beings, however, our ability to adapt and invent has led us down a path of exploitation of natural resources and ultimately, self-destruction.

Instant gratification – that is what our culture is all about. We want it now, we want it bigger, we want it stronger and faster than ever before. As the most intelligent life on earth, we have accommodated ourselves with every luxury possible. The innovation of humans is no doubt amazing, but our inability to carefully consider consequences, well, it doesn’t matter because we will deal with the consequences later. We just want what we want, and we want it now.

“… Growing populations in turn required an even greater need for the intensive exploitation of the environment. And so was launched the continuing human effort to ‘subdue the earth’ and to ‘have dominion over it,’ as the biblical story in Genesis…”

Our lack of respect for the earth all started here. Our mindset of “ownership” somehow equated to abuse. We are destroying our ozone, polluting our air, earth and waters, extracting every treasure from the earth that can make us a buck. The first time I heard the song titled, “Rape of the World” it made me realize that we have taken technology and innovation to the extreme. Our need to “have more” will ultimately leave us with nothing.

“New knowledge and technology emerged as human communities explored and exploited that changed environment. The disappearance of many large mammals, growing populations, newly settled ways of life, and fluctuations in the process of global warming – all of these represented pressures or incentives to increase food production and thus minimize the risks of life in a new era.”

Where does it end? When will it be good enough? While our intelligence has given us “dominion over” the earth, it is that very intelligence that is destroying the earth at a rate faster than it can heal. So what happens when we have exhausted all natural resources? Will we develop an application for our smart phone that will make food? Will we create a technology that will slow down global warming? Let’s hope so, our future depends on it.