How can an individual do their bit to save the world?
The late, great, Terence McKenna once asked the mushroom “How can we save the world, practically?” The reply came instantly: “Every woman should bear only one natural child.”
From a trialogue given by himself, Rupert Sheldrake and Ralph Abraham…
“First of all, let’s just take it at face value. Each woman should bear only one natural child. Now what would be the demographic consequences of this? Startlingly, within fifty years the population of the Earth would be cut in half, without war, epidemic, forced migration, government programs of sterilization, and so forth and so on.”
“A child born to a woman in a high-tech, industrial society, in the upper class of that society, will have between 800 and 1,000 times greater negative impact on the resources and carrying capacity of this planet than a child born to a woman in Bangladesh or Zaire. This is something we are not often told.”
“Notice that you can say to this college-educated, upper-class woman, ‘How would you like to have more leisure time, save a pile of money, and be hailed as a political hero? All you have to do is limit your reproductive activity to one child.”
“I don’t think that the preservation of capitalism is a sufficient reason to ruin the world and rob ourselves and our children of a sane future.”
Is this the only way to save the world? Probably not, but it is the easiest and most practical method available to us. For the last century at least, under the failed guidance of a capitalism that became ‘consumer’, we have put our own future in jeopardy just so we could maintain our right to gluttony, to have anything we wished. The greatest freedom perhaps, but also the greatest prison.
If our generation was to sacrifice its reproductive potential to just one child each, we could be moving toward a bright future. For our children… If not, I’m afraid things just get worse from here on in. The economics of capitalism cannot function if demand completely outstrips supply, and this is the tipping point we are launching ourselves toward at this present moment, while tiptoeing around the rim of the erupting volcano trying to save ourselves by using less plastic bags or recycling egg shells.
As the population increases, the value of the individual is decreased. This is a point I’m glad to have seen being made in a recent ‘Have Your Say’ topic on the BBC News website. Perhaps a point that should also have been made is the differing level of resources used by a child in the western technocracies and a child in the third world. As Terence pointed out nearly 18 years ago, this was a vast difference, and I doubt this has changed.
The problem of overpopulation lies on our doorstep. The consequences are beginning to seep through under the wood, and rising unemployment combined with soaring food and energy prices will be just the first stage.
The solution is simple. Take a mature decision to have only one child. Even if you spoil that child rotten, the negative consequences for future resources are exponentially less great, as having two children might mean four grandchildren instead of one or two, and so on and so forth.
Are you game?
…
On the other side, it could help to just let people die. It is a harder, more controversial decision to make, but perhaps we shouldn’t be using a great deal of our resources to keep people alive when the possibilities for them to live a ‘life’ died years before… We should give people a choice over their mortality, allowing them to choose to be a burden or ‘an hero’. Perhaps we should be able to ask people as they start to deteriorate:
“Would you like to die? If you do, we can offer a pain-free death of your choosing, at a time you choose, and at a place you’d like to die. Since you are still fairly able, why don’t you spend a good part of your pension on an unforgettable time with your family, so that your memory may live on with them. You can also organise your assets so that after you pass, your wishes can be fulfilled.”
To be faced with one’s own mortality and to have to deal with it is an essential part of living. Instead of rotting away in denial of that obvious fact, why don’t we just bring it into the open and let people have some power over their passing?
Just saying :) … I’m quite sure mother earth will sort out our mess soon enough, give us a slap on the wrist and tell us to go to our room, but it would be nice if we just grew up.