Part 1: Reconciling the climate crisis and humanity’s constant need for growth
This article is Part 1 in a series. Follow https://snj.medium.com/ for Part 2
Introduction
If we look at the arc of history, mankind has been on the constant and relentless pursuit of growth.
From a small patch of land in East Africa, 2 million years ago, Homo Sapiens have traversed and conquered the earth, and all the species that reside in it.
We reached for the stars and one day will occupy planetary settlements on the Moon and Mars.
Throughout this time, it has been in our DNA to constantly strive for betterment and change. Let’s think of it in a simpler way:
➠ A common person’s life in the 1700’s was much better than a king’s life in the 1500’s.
➠ A common person’s life in the 1900’s was much better the a king’s life in the 1700’s
➠ A common person’s life in the 2000’s is exponentially better than any one’s life in the past.
Due to scientific and medical research, resulting in longer and more comfortable lives and the use of technology and the internet, we humans have never had it better.
Homo Sapiens on the rise
By all conceivable standards, humanity is on the rise. More specifically, data collected on 6 key metrics show constant improvements over time:
- Extreme Poverty
- Basic Education
- Literacy
- Democracy
- Vaccination
- Child Mortality.
But, at what cost?
- Global temperatures are on the rise, causing an imbalance in the earths climate. By 2050, many low lying islands including the Maldives and Kiribati are expected to be under water. Abnormal weather events like flash floods, droughts, storms and heat waves are becoming commonplace.
- Our atmospheric CO2 concentration has grown at a steady pace every year. This is increasingly making the planet a greenhouse.
- Air, water, light and sound pollution are causing indeterminable damage to the earth’s flora and fauna.
Which brings us to the below question:
Does economic and societal growth inevitably lead to ecological destruction?
It is a myth that humans have recently started polluting the earth.
In his book, Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari describes the complete destruction of Australia’s ecosystem by the arrival of early humans. (emphasis mine)
The first human footprint on a sandy Australian beach was immediately washed away by the waves. Yet when the invaders advanced inland, they left behind a different footprint, one that would never be expunged…….
….. Within a few thousand years, virtually all of these giants vanished. Of the twenty-four Australian animal species weighing fifty kilograms or more, twenty-three became extinct. A large number of smaller species also disappeared. Food chains throughout the entire Australian ecosystem were broken and rearranged. It was the most important transformation of the Australian ecosystem for millions of years. Was it all the fault of Homo sapiens?
However, it is true that our tools and technology has become so advanced that we are now really good at doing it :)
If you ask the question Where does our material prosperity come from? To which one short answer would be ‘The Industrial Revolution’.
Yet, these technological innovations have released tonnes of poisonous gases, toxic metals, radioactive waste, plastics and synthetic fibres into our environment.
This brings us to our options:
1. Continue growing and improving humanity, and go down the inevitable path of climate change and ecological destruction.
2. Slow down growth, dial back progress and live in a more sustainable way.
But are there only two options for humanity? What is if we add a third:
3. Use the force of technology and science for climate conscious growth, and slow down growth only when it is not sustainable.
Watch out for Part 2 where i explore Option 3 in detail.
SOURCES:
https://ourworldindata.org/a-history-of-global-living-conditions-in-5-charts
