Orcas that hunted alongside orcs might be extinct.
:(
Wish humans were better stewards of earth. As a human it’s frustrating to watch others engage in destroying the planet instead of taking even simple steps to at least try.
:(
Wish humans were better stewards of earth. As a human it’s frustrating to watch others engage in destroying the planet instead of taking even simple steps to at least try.
One of the reasons mentioned was because despite hunting/gathering generally providing better nutrition (due to the variability in food), farming produced more calories. So the decision became (these number are made up) "we can farm and provide high quantities of poor nutrition to keep all of us alive", vs "we can hunt/gather to keep 75% of in great health, while 25% of the group dies."
Basically once a certain population threshold is reached the group has to enter a cycle of farming -> allows more babies to survive -> farm more. Your comment and this anecdote reminds of the capitalism cycle of consume more -> produce more value -> consume more.
If true, we've been unable to escape this cycle for thousands of years.
Modern agriculture produces varied, nutritious and plentiful foodstuffs. It also produces nonsense filler. But it’s simply not correct to claim that we’re stuck in the tradeoff our ancestors made when they settled down to farm.
I mean we are because if we go back to hunting/gathering billions of people would die.
The point is that that at the time, farming produced worse nutrition, but despite that we couldn't go back once we started. There's a whole lot of other variables today that obviously prevent us from going back to hunting/gathering.
And those who survive wouldn’t be much healthier. This isn’t a tradeoff. It’s a net gain. The original tradeoff was a worse but more-stable food supply. Today we can reliably produce nutritious food. No tradeoff.
We do, but politics is a part of reality - in every situation - and needs to be dealt with. Saying 'we'd solve the problem but for the politics' is like a ship captain saying 'I'd sail but for all that water'. The worst tactic for dealing with politics is to say it's somehow static and hopeless, though political opponents love it.
(And even if we had never done it, that is not a barrier.) The only thing we have to fear is despair. We are wealthy, young, capable and powerful; we can accomplish enormous things. No wonder the status quo loves to spread despair - they have no other defense: Imagine if people left behind all that despair and started acting!
Yes, the concept is that simple, and the action needed by you and me is that simple. Just forget all the doubts and just get to work!
(I don't mean to berate you with the exclamation points. I'm excited by the possibilities. LFG! :) )
If you want to grasp how that could happen, it's just people following social norms. The norm is despair: if you are in a meeting and everyone says such-and-such is hopeless, raising your hand and saying otherwise is not only socially hard but a bit transgressive. My hypothesis is that the status quo powers political messaging has pushed despair - after all, what else will preserve the senseless, unpopular status quo (look at climate change!)? It's the only defense they have.