There Is Nothing More Dangerous Than Us

I actually heard this on a radio broadcast this morning.  I was up uncharacteristically early from insomnia and had CBC Radio One on while getting my ducks in a row for the day at the ungodly hour of five am or so.  I did fit in a three hour nap this morning and not having to be at work on this Victoria Day Monday was definitely a plus.

"There is nothing more dangerous than us", said the subject of an interview.  The theme was about robots and droids and the possibility, however remote, that they could wreak havoc and become our masters.  Really a farfetched notion, this, and quite divorced from our human reality.  Interesting, isn't it, how expertly we project our fears and personal human darkness onto speculative fiction, be it robot rebellions or zombie attacks or alien abductions.

There is nothing more dangerous than us.  We are, to employ flattery, a species of renegade ape.  A difference of one percent in our DNA differentiates us from chimps, our slightly less intelligent and equally vicious nearest relatives.  The murderous rampages they go on have been but an evolutionary dress rehearsal for our species' ongoing experiments with genocide, mass rape, carpet bombing, environmental degradation, and threats of perpetuating global nuclear annihilation.

There is nothing more dangerous than us.  The last one hundred years of our species' history contains two of the most bloody, murderous and destructive wars that ever occurred on our planet.  Even now we have nations still arming themselves with nuclear weapons and terrorist groups as well as terrorist nations (including the charter members of NATO) engaging in scorched earth warfare, which does nothing to resolve differences nor end hostilities and everything to entrench historical grudges and blood feuds and yet more bloodshed and mass destruction.

There is nothing more dangerous than us.  The fragile and delicate balance of our biosphere and biodiversity is more threatened than ever by short-sighted human greed and violence.  The market for elephant ivory and other body parts of endangered species still has not dried up.  Entire species' populations are in danger of being wiped out within a generation.  With the extinction of even one species the web of life is yet further damaged and unravelled and the complex interdependence of all species is further undermined and knocked off balance, eventually threatening our own human existence on our suffering mother earth.  Extinct is forever.

There is nothing more dangerous than us.  Ever since our prehistoric ancestors began to walk upright and started to leave Africa we have been threatening and destroying other living things as well as each other.  We still have not matured beyond the kind of toxic tribalism that legitimizes mass murder and mass destruction: once upon a time with rocks and stones, then with spears and arrows, then guns and cannons and now nuclear weapons of global mass destruction.

There is nothing more dangerous than us.  Despite our highly developed and evolved brains and the intelligence that comes from them, we are still pathetically controlled by the amygdala, or reptilian brain.  Fear, greed and the flight or fight instinct seem to always get in the way, scuppering international treaties and flushing down the toilet almost every business negotiation undertaken to help save the environment.  Governments respond to the overwhelming scientific research and findings of the dangers of climate change by global warming by silencing the scientists and shutting down debate.  In spite of the loud and clear warnings coming from our scientist-prophets they had might as well be named Cassandra as our governments and the banks and international business interests that control our elected leaders take charge, shut down conversation and ensure that the fuels of death flow free and unhindered to poison our land and waters.

There is nothing more dangerous than us.  All over the world cynical politicians ignore the crisis that is rapidly unfolding around us and lull us to insensibility with the trite magic words of jobs and economy.  Nobody says that renewable and nonpolluting energy will generate more jobs in the long run and keep the economy running smoothly.  The CEO's of Big Oil and LNG will hear none of this.  They are our real leaders and our real masters and their word is going to be law.  So, knowing that wind turbines and solar panels will do more in the long term for our collective wellbeing than all the oil that belongs in the ground, they feign deafness and pursue their deadly agenda to our peril and to the earth's endangerment.

There is nothing more dangerous than us.  We must have our meat with every meal time, and we must have our cars to drive.  We have converted luxuries into necessities and simply will not imagine an existence without steak dinners, pulled pork, or Mercedes' Benz.  Screw the environment and keep on spewing methane and other poisons into the air. and screw the future of the planet and our species if it means living on beans, lentils and wind and solar power.

There is nothing more dangerous than us.  We owe it to the planet, to our future generations, one another and ourselves to find a place of repentance and begin now the process of change.  It might take one climate crisis too many to shock us from our somnolent complacency and once we get started with change it will probably be too late. Or will it?

How are we going to convince people who don't want to change that change is essential to our future survival?  Especially when those same people have all the money and power?

To be continued...