In several of my past blog posts, I’ve tried to point out that human overconsumption is at the root of almost all of the Earth’s environmental problems: wildlife extinction, air and water pollution, plastic-filled oceans, even Climate Change.
I’m reasonably sure that, for various reasons, many people who have read those blog entries haven’t believed what I’m saying.
To that, I say – Good!
Being a skeptic, and a critical thinker, is good. I not only don’t mind if you don’t take my word, I would encourage you not to. If you’re reading this blog post, you are a human being capable of thinking for yourself and making your own decisions. You shouldn’t take my word for anything, but you also shouldn’t take the word of some hillbilly sitting at a computer in his basement spouting theories with no scientific basis whatsoever. You should use your own analytical human mind to decide if either of our points of view is correct.
There is only one image I would ask you to consider. It is very simple, not at all political, and not attached to any ideology whatsoever. It is simple physics.
Say you had an ordinary bucket full of water, and every day you removed a single cupful. What I am asking you to consider is this: would that bucket someday be empty? You shouldn’t need me to tell you the answer.
To understand our environmental predicament, the concept I just outlined is really all you need to know. If you have a finite resource (that is, one that has a limit), and you continue reducing it, eventually it will reach zero. That is true of a basket of apples, a bucket of water, a plain full of buffalo, an ocean full of whales, an atmosphere full of clean air, or a planet full of oil and minerals.
What if someone came along and claimed that the bucket would never be empty, no matter how much water was removed? Would you believe them? Would you blindly take their word as the truth, or would you use your powers of reasoning to work out the answer for yourself.
A lot of voices out there claim that environmental impact is very complex, that you shouldn’t think too hard, just take their word for the truth. It’s not. At its root, it’s very simple. It’s easy to work it out for yourself. I’m no mental giant, and there was actually a time when I didn’t understand it either, but eventually I worked it out. You can too.
So don’t listen to me. Listen to your analytical mind and your common sense. Do that and you will know the truth. And nobody, not me or anybody else, will be able to mislead you.
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