Why?
Yesterday I visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was a spectactular collection of marine life. In particular was a visiting exhibition of seahorses. As I navigated from tank to tank, touched by the vast span of shape, color, beauty, and idiosyncracy of our living reality, I couldn't escape the throngs of families who were having their own Sunday outings. Strollers and children abounded. Displays were interspersed with placards and screens advocating for conservation. The aquarium itself names its mission as a means of increasing awareness to protect wild places and wild life.
And for that reason, it was so striking to see a problem visiting a solution. I am convinced that human behavior is the reason so much other life is suffering. Millions of species of plants and animals are threatened, endangered, or extinct. Habitats continue to shrink due to expansion of human residential, agriculture, mining, drilling, and manufacturing needs. And what spaces are left wild are flooded with the waste products of the aforementioned human activities.
That said, I am a consumer. I am not a Luddite. I am not a hippie. I live in the city. I own a TV. I support technology, civilization, and the well being of all that wish to offer me the same. Personally, I am also deeply touched by life in its many forms, and it seems as devastating to me to bulldoze a pristine forest as it does to bulldoze my neighbor's house. Both are places in which what's there would rather be, and both are places that had a lot of time and energy put into being there. But even on a purely selfish basis, can we consider our choices in terms of not shooting ourselves in the foot?
Many sources indicate that in 10 years we will be facing worldwide shortages of fresh water. Think about this. There will not be enough water. Imagine being thirsty, and not having any possible way to relieve that feeling. Imagine being dirty, and having no bath or shower to turn to. This is already a reality for many many people. I'm not fear-mongering, I'm simply describing an apparently elusive cause-and-effect relationship: finite resources divided among more and more consumers. At some point, there will too little, and that point is upon us.
Beyond water, there is of course the overall climate itself. Every person generates their own contribution to this problem, and westerners with much more manufactured goods and travel impact are the worst. So each body makes us hotter, sicker, and less able to survive. Of course, we can all reduce our consumption and our carbon footprint and we do and should. But the equation has two parts. One, the impact of an individual. Two, the number of individuals.
Then there is the complex hierarchy that supports our life. Devastation of insect populations threatens plant populations which threaten animal populations and on and on. Basic 8th grade earth science teaches us the cycles that support us. If we didn't get it then, we should get it now. The breakdown is showing us decisively that our foundation is crumbling. And a foundation that took billions of years to build. Toppling after just 100 years of misbehavior.
It is an atrocity of intellectual debate that population management through individual voluntary family planning is not at the top of our collective mind. I am against any form of mandate that would restrict human population growth. But I cannot advocate enough that those of us who are interested in surviving and being well, and perhaps offering that possibility to others who cannot or will not help, consider why we need to reproduce and how fair it is to all parties involved - including the children.
I see spirituality as why we do what we do. Religion can be spirituality if it advises to this effect. Whether you have religion, or just a personal sense of choice, you must have a framework that includes reality. Otherwise, we're in different worlds and your world doesn't realize it's crushing mine. That makes us, sad to say, foes by design. If we are in agreement that our belief systems, however spun, are to include reality - in the form of observable best effort truth - then we must be willing to overtake our habitual inclinations with our concerted judgment. Because truth currently demands it.
I introduce this topic not as a chastisement for those who've chosen to have children, or as a means of shaming or insulting those who plan to do so. What I really want is an education. Tell me why it makes sense. Tell me why I'm wrong. Tell me how you plan to deal with scarcity of natural resources. I wish it weren't true. If it weren't I'd have three kids. As I've always wanted. To see my legacy live on. To feel incumbent unconditional love. To feel like a parent. To feel part of a long history of life. But I won't. Because it makes no sense to me.
How could I put effort - a LOT of effort - into something that not only is completely unnecessary to me or anyone else, but is in fact going to harm us all. How could I do that?
Even at this point, I recall how I felt looking through aquarium glass into the eyes of a leafy sea dragon, a creature unlike any I've ever seen. So delicate and gentle, a form that could be as much plant as animal, and feeling as though I were a fool at the foot of the wise. There is quiet desperation in the eyes of many of our earthmates. It is a desperation, I believe, drawn from their reality that speaks to surges of insanity - things behaving in ways that make no sense even to themselves. It is the look of fear that has no obvious resolution, and therefore must be accepted. Perhaps I will have that look one day. But for now, I still have hope.
And for that reason, it was so striking to see a problem visiting a solution. I am convinced that human behavior is the reason so much other life is suffering. Millions of species of plants and animals are threatened, endangered, or extinct. Habitats continue to shrink due to expansion of human residential, agriculture, mining, drilling, and manufacturing needs. And what spaces are left wild are flooded with the waste products of the aforementioned human activities.
That said, I am a consumer. I am not a Luddite. I am not a hippie. I live in the city. I own a TV. I support technology, civilization, and the well being of all that wish to offer me the same. Personally, I am also deeply touched by life in its many forms, and it seems as devastating to me to bulldoze a pristine forest as it does to bulldoze my neighbor's house. Both are places in which what's there would rather be, and both are places that had a lot of time and energy put into being there. But even on a purely selfish basis, can we consider our choices in terms of not shooting ourselves in the foot?
Many sources indicate that in 10 years we will be facing worldwide shortages of fresh water. Think about this. There will not be enough water. Imagine being thirsty, and not having any possible way to relieve that feeling. Imagine being dirty, and having no bath or shower to turn to. This is already a reality for many many people. I'm not fear-mongering, I'm simply describing an apparently elusive cause-and-effect relationship: finite resources divided among more and more consumers. At some point, there will too little, and that point is upon us.
Beyond water, there is of course the overall climate itself. Every person generates their own contribution to this problem, and westerners with much more manufactured goods and travel impact are the worst. So each body makes us hotter, sicker, and less able to survive. Of course, we can all reduce our consumption and our carbon footprint and we do and should. But the equation has two parts. One, the impact of an individual. Two, the number of individuals.
Then there is the complex hierarchy that supports our life. Devastation of insect populations threatens plant populations which threaten animal populations and on and on. Basic 8th grade earth science teaches us the cycles that support us. If we didn't get it then, we should get it now. The breakdown is showing us decisively that our foundation is crumbling. And a foundation that took billions of years to build. Toppling after just 100 years of misbehavior.
It is an atrocity of intellectual debate that population management through individual voluntary family planning is not at the top of our collective mind. I am against any form of mandate that would restrict human population growth. But I cannot advocate enough that those of us who are interested in surviving and being well, and perhaps offering that possibility to others who cannot or will not help, consider why we need to reproduce and how fair it is to all parties involved - including the children.
I see spirituality as why we do what we do. Religion can be spirituality if it advises to this effect. Whether you have religion, or just a personal sense of choice, you must have a framework that includes reality. Otherwise, we're in different worlds and your world doesn't realize it's crushing mine. That makes us, sad to say, foes by design. If we are in agreement that our belief systems, however spun, are to include reality - in the form of observable best effort truth - then we must be willing to overtake our habitual inclinations with our concerted judgment. Because truth currently demands it.
I introduce this topic not as a chastisement for those who've chosen to have children, or as a means of shaming or insulting those who plan to do so. What I really want is an education. Tell me why it makes sense. Tell me why I'm wrong. Tell me how you plan to deal with scarcity of natural resources. I wish it weren't true. If it weren't I'd have three kids. As I've always wanted. To see my legacy live on. To feel incumbent unconditional love. To feel like a parent. To feel part of a long history of life. But I won't. Because it makes no sense to me.
How could I put effort - a LOT of effort - into something that not only is completely unnecessary to me or anyone else, but is in fact going to harm us all. How could I do that?
Even at this point, I recall how I felt looking through aquarium glass into the eyes of a leafy sea dragon, a creature unlike any I've ever seen. So delicate and gentle, a form that could be as much plant as animal, and feeling as though I were a fool at the foot of the wise. There is quiet desperation in the eyes of many of our earthmates. It is a desperation, I believe, drawn from their reality that speaks to surges of insanity - things behaving in ways that make no sense even to themselves. It is the look of fear that has no obvious resolution, and therefore must be accepted. Perhaps I will have that look one day. But for now, I still have hope.
posted by Arif at 12:28 PM
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