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7/28/2019 Are We Forcing Ourselves Into Extinction?
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/are-we-forcing-ourselves-into-extinction 1/4
Are We Forcing Ourselves Into Extinction?
A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifyingthe air and giving fresh strength to our people.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
We don't need to clear the 4 to 6 percent of the Earth's surface remaining in tropical rain
forests, with most of the animal and plant species living there.
- E. O. Wilson
We've set aside tens of millions of acres of those northwestern forests for perpetuity. The
unemployment rate has gone not up, but down. The economy has gone up.- Bruce Babbitt
No one could doubt that humans are the most advanced, the best
developed, the most intelligent, the most creative and inventive
species ever to have graced the earth.
Well, almost no one. Actually, I do. Remember, who granted us thattitle? We assumed that there were no other species in the race.
True, we have language, which no other species seems to have in thesame form. But many animal species and several plant species have
been shown to communicate among themselves. Not with us. We canneither understand their communication nor communicate with them
in ways they understand. Yet they understand each other, as has been
proven by science.
We have imaginations, a characteristic in which we take great pride,one that has given us art, literature, music in their various forms.
Neanderthals are now known to have made cave paintings in France.
We don't know about non-human species because they do not expressthemselves the way we do. So we assume they are not as smart or as
developed as us.
It was long thought that we had emotions that no other species had,
or even could appreciate. We now know that many animals have
emotions. Some plants have also been shown to have at least someemotions. Some we now know can communicate fear to others nearbywhen they are about to be harmed, not just when they are harmed,
but before they are actually harmed.
Elephants communicate with each other over many kilometres at
sound levels below the range that humans can detect. Whales have
been observed apparently communicating with others of their kind
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over one thousand kilometres away. We humans actually hear onlywithin a tiny range of air vibrations. We have little idea about non-
human communication in frequencies we can't hear.
We don't know for certain if any creatures on the planet, animals or
plants, hear or communicate at frequencies beyond what we considernormal (for us).
I dare say that few people would include rocks (minerals) if askedwhat kinds of life exist on earth. Why? Because they don't know. Trees
and other plants, in general, exist in life dimensions much differentfrom what we know, much slower. Rocks, which are known through
continental "drift" to move and interact with each other, may well have
a form of life that is so different from our own that we can't detect itbecause we move at a much faster pace.
Let me ask you this? What is the largest life form on earth today? Not
the elephant. The blue whale? There is a fungus under several of the
states in the USA east of the Rockies. One continuous life form, largerthan whole states. If you didn't know that, what else might exist
around you that you know little about? Literally millions of people liveright above that fungus.
One of my favourite birds is the ruby-throated hummingbird. The onesthat visit my verandah flap their wings around 950 times a minute.
Faster than any of us could see clearly. They move around so quickly
that no other bird or animal could catch them. They live about threeyears. The giant tortoise of the Galapagos moves so slowly that people
don't want to wait to see where they go. They live about 400 years.Animals as diverse as these live at different life rates, some might say
in different dimensions.
We determine intelligence by the form of intelligence best exemplified
by the people who devise the intelligence tests. Humans are the "mostintelligent" creatures on earth because we make up the tests. IQ tests
of the past were shown to be shockingly biased in favour of the cultureof the people who devised the tests. Thus people of Africa, for
example, fared badly on them because they did not share a similarbackground to the devisors of the tests.
How intelligent are other animals? Only now are we learning that
dolphins, some birds and some land animals are more intelligent thatwe thought. How do we know? We gave them tests that we could do,
so if they could do them they must be intelligent.
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How would you measure the intelligence of a giant sequoia tree? They
live for hundreds of years (the oldest known as about 2200 years old).
They must know something to live that long. Something we don't.
How might you measure the intelligence of the Rock of Gibraltar?Never mind, no one would believe you even if you had a guess.
What we humans most excel at is arrogance and hubris. We are verypoor at learning from others who know more than us. Yet we are ready
to criticize others who know less, who make mistakes, or even whohave opinions different from our own. Dogs and cats that many of us
have as pets know how to get what they want better than the humans
who claim to "own" them. They ask, in their own way, but humans justexpect those around them to understand, maybe by instinct.
What does this have to do with us causing our own extinction?
Charles Darwin claimed in his theory of evolution that survivaldepended on the ability to adapt (not to fitness, as many reports have
falsely noted). Our ancestors were remarkable at adapting, spreading
over the millennia to virtually every habitable corner of the planet.From the frozen Arctic to the Sahara Desert to the rain forests of the
Amazon, our ancestors adapted to conditions and thrived in each oneof them.
Their descendants still live in these harsh environments. But since theyadopted western styles of life, they have also developed western
diseases, including heart disease, diabetes and obesity. They haveadapted the wrong way, just as we in developed countries have
adapted in ways that will harm our own health.
More importantly, we now depend on developments in medical science
and technology to save us, while we stubbornly stick with ourunhealthy lifestyles. We believe that medicine will heal us, while it can
only relieve symptoms. Healthy bodies don't get sick.
More countries than ever before in history have the ability to annihilatebillions of us with nuclear weapons. North Korea doesn't get its way
with others, so it cancels the agreement it signed at the end of theKorean War and threatens any country that refuses to give it its way.
In response, the US does not offer to talk out the problems, insteadchoosing to boost its own missile defence, threatening to wipe out
North Korea, claiming that if North Korea fires a nuclear missile it
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would be suicide.
Does that sound like civilized countries that have progressed into a
safe and peaceful existence in the 21st Century?
We tend to believe the politicians we elect will look after our welfare,even though we are aware that they can be bought by industry. We
believe the food we buy at the market is safe, while it is almost
impossible to find even fresh fruits and vegetables that are not lacedwith pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides. Or genetically modified in
ways that help the chemical companies that created them than us, theconsumers.
We force ourselves to live stressful lives to earn money we believe weneed to make us comfortable and happy. Yet as soon as we get more,
we want even more than that. We know we need to de-stress, to relax,to chill out, but we claim we don't have time (the irony of that misses
most of the people who should be aware of it). When that leads to an
unhealthy body and illness, we turn to doctors and drugs (see above).
We believe that we are powerful enough to change the climate of theworld, though we are unable to influence any one part of the weather
when trouble comes our way. We worry about warming raising the
average temperature of the atmosphere by half a degree, but showlittle interest in the 300,000 chemicals that industries put into our
waterways or the half million chemicals they put into the air we
breathe. We drink the water and bathe in it, we breathe the air, butthat seems to matter little to us.
We believe that technology (or God, in some cases) will save us from
destruction at the last minute. Yet we have no evidence that either ispossible. We can't even imagine what a solution might be.
Evolution says that homo sapiens will be succeeded by a moreadvanced species, and we will subsequently pass from existence.
Could that happen? History suggests that our species might cease to
exist one day. But it will not likely be succeeded by a more advanced
species. We would certainly kill it off before it had a chance to multiply.
Bill Allin is the author of Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for
Today's Epidemic Social Problems, a guidebook for grandparents,
parents and teachers who want to know what their children need andwhen they need it.
Learn more at http://billallin.com