You’ve probably heard the term “Peak Oil”, being the point we passed a while ago where reserved dropped below the point at which demand will always exceed supply from this point onward … and you may have heard the adaptation of the term to “Peak Stuff” by the IKEA CEO in recognition of passing the point at which all material resources will be in the same demand exceeding supply situation … so I want to put it to you again, but this time in the context of extinction.
I’ve written about this before so I won’t bother going into the same detail, I just want to make the point that about 20 years ago a study showed the extinction rate to be 1 distinct species of plant or animal approximately every 20 minutes … more recently this has accelerated to a rate approximately 3-5 times farster than that … and so with more than half the land mammals already gone, I propose to you that we must be nearing or past “Peak Extinction”, the point at which there’s no longer enough species remaining to maintain such a high extinction rate.
Think about that.
Now ask yourself this: where is my enthusiasm for funding the creation of an alternative economic paradigm?
Are you ok with all this extinction? You think human-kind is a pest species that needs to wipe itself out? Well guess what … the planet is almost overdue for another extinction level NEO impact event, and we are the only species who can stop it … so every other species is relying on us to get our fucking shit together. Now whether you want to admit it or not, capitalism does more enslaving & restricting than freeing people, and you cannot predict who will come up with the solutions to what … AND … capitalism corrupts the purpose of all invention, so you cannot be sure that any idea will be implemented in the correct manner to achieve its objectives, if it has capitalism constantly undermining its other (more important) purposes in order to redirect its focus always back to the oxymoron “profit” as defined by this insane economic paradigm … THEREFORE if you really want to save yourself &/or other species from extinction, the answer lies NOT in the economic paradigm that’s been causing it so recklessly for decades and centuries, too stupid to see what it was doing, and to flawed to turn itself around … and the answer lies NOT in giving up on humanity as flawed and allowing us to pass away … the answer lies ONLY in changing the fundamental bases of civilisation which arguably bring out the worst in us, and replacing them with better systems that bring out the best in us.
Can you rely on a “change in consciousness” or “raising awareness” to achieve everything we need to achieve & as fast as we need to achieve it? No … these things only take you so far, and beyond that you need real plans made of well designed structures, strategies, and systems … without which, you face the impossible task of getting near universal agreement between human beings (despite the fact some of them are insane), and even if you got that agreement, what are you agreeing to if you don’t have a plan?? The only other alternative – also flawed – is Togo to war and kill off as many people as you can to reduce consumption, the problem with this of course being that war consumes vast resources, causes pollution, and for all you know you’re killing of the person(s) whom – given the education – would have been the ones who figured out how to save us from the aforementioned extinction level asteroid impact; the fact is, you just don’t know.
Arguably we need systems that allow for the differences between human values & goals … not everyone wants the same things – therefore: you must allow for these differences by finding a means of guiding events that only the one hand respects freedom of choice, but on the other hand deals with the quantifiable consequences of those choices.
Peak extinction is on us people – it’s our fault … what are you going to do about it?