> It really was a great way to get Americans to upgrade more often
I cringe in fear when I read this line. The voracious appetite and the unwavering focus on economic growth is hurting the entire world. Isn't it a time to step back and rethink our long term strategy as one species?
I routinely board very large airplanes without having the vaguest idea of how they work or how to fly them - I'm a passenger, and happy to ride along. I take buses, and taxis, and ride shotgun when others drive, without sweating it. But put me behind the wheels of the car, and I suddenly need to know a whole lot more. Manual or automatic? Mirros adjusted right? Where is the knob for the headlights? Emergency break, just in case? Where I buy a new car, I actually do skim over the manual.
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A reporter called recently and asked how long it would take Earth to "forget" humanity if we suddenly disappeared. In some sense, we are now unforgettable - the human-caused plant and animal extinctions have emptied biological "jobs" and that will be filled over many millions of years by creatures who will owe their existence to use wiping out the competition. We have pumped oil and gas out of the ground that had been there for hundreds of millions of years, through holes that may not be eroded away for additional hundreds of millions of years. The human "layer" of plastic and aluminum foil and heavy metals may be recognizable in sedimentary piles hundreds of millions of years from now.
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With the among of stuff we use, and the amount of the world we occupy, we are no longer passengers napping in the back seat of the car. We are everywhere, and changing everything. Hence many environmental scientists are now involved in figuring out what we are doing, how to operate a remarkably complex and involved Earth system, and how to make the ride as enjoyable as possible.
I'm concerned that a lot of people, including some of those whow are making laws, still think that they are sitting in the back of the car, looking our the window and enjoying the ride.
- 'Earth - The Operators' Manual' By Richard B. Alley