Our Success is Our Death. Only Spectacular Failure Can Ensure Our Survival!
I want you all to do an experiment – keep a bowl of water with algae and dead fish in your living room. And go about your normal routine for 2 days. How does that feel? Can’t stand it? Right? So what do you do? Run out of the house? Phew, that helped.. huh?!!
Well in about 30 years we all will be living on a planet with all our oceans EXACTLY like that bowl!! And, there is nowhere to jump off of this planet, even when it is spinning at such a speed!
In 2010, per official figures, 10 Billion land animals were killed in the US for food. Globally, it was 65 billion. (source) With just 5% of the population, US kills 15% of the world’s land animals. If you add in the sea animals, the US figure rises to 59 billion! (source). That’s 58 billion animals for 318 million people! If the world ate like the US, the total human population of the planet would need 1.3 TRILLION land and sea animals. PER YEAR!
Btw, to understand the impact of what US – and the newly emerging China – is having on our Oceans and Seas – let us get a reality check. Did you know that 18% of ocean species on this planet have decreased by more than 90% with 7% of fish species now extinct?! Well here are some more startling facts reported by National Geographic news.
Unless humans act now, seafood may disappear by 2048, concludes the lead author of a new study that paints a grim picture for ocean and human health.
According to the study, the loss of ocean biodiversity is accelerating, and 29 percent of the seafood species humans consume have already crashed. If the long-term trend continues, in 30 years there will be little or no seafood available for sustainable harvest.
The increasing pace of diversity loss thus imperils the “ecosystems services” that many human populations depend on for survival, the study says.
The research also found that biodiversity loss is tightly linked to declining water quality, harmful algal blooms, ocean dead zones, fish kills, and coastal flooding. (Related: ‘Dead Zone’ off Oregon Coast Is Growing, Study Says” [August 4, 2006].)
The impact of complete destruction of the fishes will not be those slippery beings missing from the planet of future. But something totally devastating.
Let us look at the successful living in its face – as per the Rainforest Action Network, the United States alone – which has less than 5% of the world’s population – consumes over 30% of the world’s paper! The world wants to immitate the “success” of the US as a nation, society and culture. Let us look at some of the facts of our forests.
Over 20% of the world’s oxygen is produced in the Amazon forest.
25% of cancers fighting organisms are found in the amazon
13 million hectare per year in South America and Africa and south East Asia is converted from a forest to an agriculture land
Half of the world’s tropical forests has already been cleared
One and a half acres of forest is cut down every second.
The rate of deforestation equals to loss of 20 football fields every minute.
It is estimated that within 100 years there will be no rainforests. (source)
The Ugly Face of Success
US is the most successful country and society in the world as per those who aren’t in it. It is a remarkable success from many standpoints. So, let us ask the obvious question – What if the World lived like the Americans?!
The answer should be obvious to those who peruse the facts above. Either it hits you hard or you have an empty skull which can’t be bothered anyway!
If you like your meat or your fish – if you need religion or some god-damned God to tell you to stop it, then you are useless nut! Just take a look at your own kids – and then do two things:
Put that bowl with algae and dead fish in the main room, and
Shut the doors tight so no air from outside comes inside. No new oxygen.
Is it cruel? Naaah, not nearly as cruel as what you are ACTUALLY doing for your kids’ future with such aplomb that the worst serial killer who murdered his own kids and others’ would feel inferior to.
Now, you may want to look at the ban on meat by some state governments. They may be politically motivated, but unknowingly, they may be doing the greatest charity needed – even if for a few days! Those who are rooting for meat in the face of the ban are like those who hate an irritating old Aunt who warns you to change your lifestyle while you are racing towards high cholesterol levels with all main arteries closed! Worse, they complain when she shows up at the door and knocks because she is making too much noise! Yes, she ain’t your heart surgeon, but her advise will help you. Guys, freedom is a concept, your breath and food are not!
In any case, we all need to look at the direction and trajectory at which we are going and where it will take us all. Are we even realizing that the only.. the SINGLE MOST reason why we are surviving as a species is that the world isn’t a fraction as “successful” as the US? If the world was anywhere close to the US, we would have been dead by now?
Our “success” – as we define it now – is our death! Our survival may lie in our collective “failure”. And, for that we need to fail rather spectacularly!
Featured Image Source: Flickr