People Just Get Out Of The Way!!!

"If all insects on Earth disappeared, within 50 years all life on
Earth would end. If all human beings disappeared from the Earth,
within 50 years all forms of life would flourish."
— Biologist Jonas Salk

Assuming that the above quote is essentially stating the truth, and I think it is absolutely spot on, tell me this: Why should we do anything to promote our own survival? You would think that an intelligent species that is decimating the world would come to the conclusion that they should just get out of the way. Hell, even NASCAR drivers do it.
The Question restated: Can anyone think of any valid reason at all for the continuance of the Human race? Besides the selfish gene theory? Maybe so we can do good? At what price? I hate to admit that I can’t.
On the other hand, if is going to end, I would prefer it to end after I finish the wine in the cellar. And that, my friends, is exactly the problem.
Image: http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/nobabies.jpg

Ishmael and the Starving Children

The book “Ishmael” has been around for a while, and when a friend gave it to me to read recently I thought after finishing “I am Ishmael”. My conclusions are the same: agriculture changed the human paradigm for ever, for the worse. Never truer than today. Millions of people starving to death in Northern Africa. The stated cause: Drought and crop failure. That is complete rubbish. The cause is simply too many people trying to live on too little arable land. And the land gets less arable as global climate change drives the droughts.
The conundrum is this: if we let the millions starve and die, them the population will be reduced to the survivors who might have a chance to survive the coming disasters of weather. If we feed them they will survive and have more babies and further degrade the environment in which they live. The civilized answer is “feed them”.
But wait! Where does the food come from? Ah, therein lies the rub. It comes from the world’s nations that have surplus food production, and they also have population increases and they also have climate-related problems with agriculture. So what happens when the starving of the world are starving and we don’t have surpluses to give them? Do we starve ourselves to feed them?

(By the way, You are responsible for all the starving children in Africa today. Yes, You. You wanted their parents fed 20 years ago, and now their children are starving. At least take responsibility for that.)
Don’t turn away from this discussion friends. It is just around the corner.
Image: http://misstila.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Starving-Child-5.jpeg
Ishmael the novel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael_(novel)

Cognitive Sewage

I love this term: “Cognitive Sewage”. Just has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? I heard it this morning during a discussion on NPR about the shortage of drinking water looming in the near future and the nearly endless supply of treated water from sewer treatment plants. Drinkable water. That no one wants to drink. Why not? The simple answer is the “yuck” factor.
Your brain scores the effluent as “yucky”, relates it to sewage and you refuse to consider drinking it. Even though it may be significantly cleaner than the water in the river or ground that is the source of your current drinking water. Powerful associations in the brain make you recoil at the thought of drinking the stuff.
I remember a conversation I had with a sanitary engineer who was overseeing the installation of a small treatment plant at a trailer park where I lived. This would be around 1969 or so. The small plant, he said, would produce drinkable water at the outflow. The outflow was piped into a sinkhole at the edge of the property. I offered to get him a glass, and he said “no thanks, I’m not thirsty.” Neither was I. The water in the Mississippi river is sewage effluent. Ever been to Nawleans? Yup, you drank sewage effluent.
Think of all the cognitive sewage you have floating around in your brain. Fears, phobias, irrational ideas about certain types of people. Think about it. I put Republicans in that category, and conservative religious nutters. Maybe it’s time to flush the toilet of our minds and start over? For me, that starts in the voting booth.

http://www.uncoverage.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Sewage-treatment-plant-in-Encino-where-the-magic-happens.jpg