Think about it?

I am quite new to this blog thing and am not sure really what I am supposed to do with it. My wife said I should have one so I set one up. My interpretation is that it should be getting some feed back. So far this has not been the case. Based on what you see in the news, controversy seems to generate interest so I thought I might try and entice a little bit.

As I watch the news and just look at things in general these days it blows my mind at how naive people are about reality, at least outwardly. The economy, global warming, the oil spill in the gulf, food and water issues. To me it is quite clear, there are to many beings on the planet. Why, technology. Earth was never meant to handle this many people. In order to survive this long we have resorted to technology, and to clarify, I would specify modern technology to counteract the boundaries of our environment. Without it the world population would drop drastically. There is no way mother nature can produce naturally enough food to sustain everyone indefinitely. Without modern medical technology disease would run rampant. Disease spread around the globe to populations without natural resistance via modern transportation technology.

I find it ironic to hear that modern technology is the solution to our problems when in actuality it is the root cause of them. For example; the push now is to go green, green technologies to ween us off fossil fuels. Sounds great right? Do you realize what this involves? I am certainly not an expert but I do know it will require large amounts of “rare earth” minerals, you know, the ones on the bottom of the periodic table of elements. “Rare”, interesting term, doesn't that mean there is a limited supply of them? When you think of minerals, don't you think of mining, I do. Is this an environmentally friendly approach? What happens when they are gone? Is there enough initially to do what we need to do? What problems will we cause down the road as we exploit them?

One of the best courses I ever had the privilege of taking was a wildlife management course in high school, many, many, years ago. The teacher was a former game warden and avid outdoors man. One of the main concepts I took away from the course was that of “carrying capacity”. Basically what it means is a certain track of land has a natural capacity or volume of life it can support indefinitely and all of it is interconnected. If you fool around with the habitat/environment the capacities will change accordingly and eventually balance themselves out to a sustainable level. This is how mother nature works. The time involved is irrelevant as we know it. I say this because as humans we are incredibly inpatient, especially in today's world. It all depends on the circumstances surrounding the issue. The oil spill in the gulf is a good example, better yet, how about the Valdez Spill in Alaska. While these episodes are not natural in nature, Mother Nature will and is working to correct them, balance them out so to speak. Time is irrelevant to Mother Nature, it only matters to us as we tend to be selfish.

There is an interesting term used in the engineering field know as “Unintended Consequences”. This is where, theoretically you take a look at the impact new technologies will have on the environment and society. Lets take a look at the automobile. Do you think the idea of air pollution or an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico ever was a concern for Henry Ford? I would highly doubt it. We need to take a serious look at such issues. If not Mother Nature will deal with them. Trust me, she is doing it now we are simply to naive to see it.
Happy Paddling!!!
Scott