Re: climate change "existential" threat to humanity
Posted: Wed 22 Nov 2017, 15:47:55
To make this a binary choice between humanity and the planet is truly absurd. Humanity like all living creatures currently on this planet are exquisitely suited to live here in their particular environmental niches. We humans, being Omnivores and with our tool making abilities and intelligence have demonstrated we can live almost anywhere on this planet.
This planet is a miracle in its capacity to nurture and sustain life. To abandon it or forsake it to go out into the vast and extremely inhospitable cosmos is insanity. We can build colonies nearby in the Solar System but Earth is and should remain our indispensable lifeline. To hear Kaiser speak of us humans like some robots incapable of diversity of behavior and adaptation is really a very limited treatise. Primates are capable of great levels of cooperation and altruism and in fact other animals also display these characteristics. In fact, reading some it seems the Universe has truly favored Cooperation and Interconnection in all its living inhabitants as well as in its basic embedded organization. Life here on Earth is a recurrent display of cooperation and competition. Humanity though on the whole is a stark example of the success of Cooperation as a strategy.
So, yes we are dramatically degrading the life sustaining capacity of this planet. but as others on this site have pointed out this will put us back in balance with Nature . Our dominion here is almost ended. This will entail a big die off of humans but probably not extinction. So, our best hope is that this correction and new equilibrium reached will pave the way for a new era in humanities evolution characterized by a profound visceral and collective understanding and appreciation of Nature and of being in harmony with it and with each other.
This planet is a miracle in its capacity to nurture and sustain life. To abandon it or forsake it to go out into the vast and extremely inhospitable cosmos is insanity. We can build colonies nearby in the Solar System but Earth is and should remain our indispensable lifeline. To hear Kaiser speak of us humans like some robots incapable of diversity of behavior and adaptation is really a very limited treatise. Primates are capable of great levels of cooperation and altruism and in fact other animals also display these characteristics. In fact, reading some it seems the Universe has truly favored Cooperation and Interconnection in all its living inhabitants as well as in its basic embedded organization. Life here on Earth is a recurrent display of cooperation and competition. Humanity though on the whole is a stark example of the success of Cooperation as a strategy.
So, yes we are dramatically degrading the life sustaining capacity of this planet. but as others on this site have pointed out this will put us back in balance with Nature . Our dominion here is almost ended. This will entail a big die off of humans but probably not extinction. So, our best hope is that this correction and new equilibrium reached will pave the way for a new era in humanities evolution characterized by a profound visceral and collective understanding and appreciation of Nature and of being in harmony with it and with each other.