Being conscious about: our planet.

Welcome to my little experiment! Maybe it will be yours too.

So we'll start a topic and discuss it. Sometimes the blog post will be updated to include insights shared from the comments. In fact, I hope it will happen often.

In the "end", if there will ever be such a thing, we should have something interesting to read... At least to those who contribute!

Now, about the subject.

I've come across many arguments as why we should care about our planet, as well as why we shouldn't. I'm pretty sure you've seen them yourself. So let's examine some:

- Why should we:

• The planet's resources are limited.
• To preserve species for our next generations.
• ...

- Why shouldn't we:

• The resources aren't likely to end in our lifetime (or in n lifetimes).
• It costs us (time, money, ...) to preserve something that couldn't preserve itself.
• ...

I admit, I shamefully tend to agree to the "why should we" arguments. But if there's something I learned is that nothing is as simple as it seems, or there's always a deeper layer to dig.

Here's a fact. Human population grows exponentially. The planet doesn't grow. Being conscious about the planet will buy us some time, but won't sustain our exponential growth indefinitely.

It doesn't mean that we shouldn't do it (being conscious, I mean). I'm convinced that the sooner we start, the more time we get. But that's not a solution in itself.

So what then? Here are some options:

1. We start controlling our growth.
2. We find a way to expand into other planets (or other astronomical bodies).
3. We do nothing about it.

Option 1 will be hard to implement in a worldwide scale. People can grow quite fond of their right to procreate. And why not? It seems to be what all life forms like doing.

Option 2 won't come overnight. But then again, it's hard to estimate when our good old planet will become too small for our big family.

I'd like to call Option 3 the "natural selection" way. If we keep doing it, eventually we'll all compete for our daily bread and for shelter. I don't think it will be beautiful to watch, so I'd rather not see it.

For now, I'll give you this. It may be a shame, but we're like a disease. We want to grow until we can't anymore. But don't despair (yet)! All life is like that. It's just part of the game. If a life form goes the other way, it gets extinct. Most of us don't want to be part of an extinct race.

I don't, at least not tonight.

Other than that, most of us would like to see our family, friends, city, country, world, ..., (all in a people perspective) persevere. I think that the trick is to keep an eye on unneeded competition. Most of the time, we can grow together. Other times we need the competition for motivation.


Well, time to discuss!