If the family of humanity is somehow a part of a “evolutionary” process of human growth and development, such as you describe above, and Dr. Joel Cohen has described elsewhere, then it seems to me that our leaders will soon have to begin exhibiting some of the “living within limits” behaviors one would immediately expect from a reality-oriented and mature human being.

Apparently, the economic powerbrokers and politicians are ignorant of “limits to growth” as to the real challenges of our time. They remain adamantly focused upon their own selfish material interests and privileges to conspicuously consume. The altogether transparent behaviors of the rich and powerful among us, who organize life so that they are not bothered by the vicissitudes and misfortunes of others, are instructive because their behavior dramatizes both a childish carelessness with regard to the over-consumption of Earth’s limited resources and unsustainable adolescent hubris.

In spite of the selfishness and self-seeking of their elders, our children somehow appear to have learned something too many leaders have forgotten. The children know something about sharing (not hoarding) and generosity; they are smarter (not more clever) and more capable; and they can see what a single generation can do to precipitate the reckless dissipation of Earth’s resources, the relentless degradation of Earth’s environment, and the ruination of Earth as a fit place for human habitation.

Yes, our children could face revolting human-induced developments and daunting global challenges soon. The underdeveloped behaviors of their elders in our time are painful reminders of a degree of immaturity similar to that of Wil E. Coyote.

Perhaps our leaders are well-advised to adopt new, more reasonable and sensible ways of behaving in a finite world before the Earth is ravaged by the human species.

Sincerely,

Steve

We’re in trouble. We’re in serious trouble.

But maybe it’s our definition of freedom that we got wrong. Maybe living within the means of the planet is the source of our real freedom — our real meaning as the only self-reflective conscious being that we know.

Maybe, like adolescents growing to adulthood, real freedom comes right there in the accepting of our limits, our responsibilities, our potential, our real reason for being, for having evolved at all.

Margaret

If I was to sit here and say what I wish could be, I would begin by saying simply that the world we inhabit should be flat (and therefore unbounded, limitless) and human beings could be invited to continue doing exactly as we like, doing just as we are doing now forever. Freedom and dignity of the individual are cornerstones of my life and I would extoll these virtues above all else.

Unfortunately, the world God has blessed us to inhabit is not flat. Earth is a bounded celestial orb, set among a sea of stars. Human beings evolved here. Sometimes we forget that we are a part of this Earth and members of a species that is often not adequately recognized for its distinctly human creatureliness. Until very recently, a mere two hundred and ten years ago, no one had publicly discussed, just as we are doing again now, the potential threat to humanity, life as we know it and the integrity of Earth that could one day be posed by the growth of absolute global human population numbers.

That day when the human species poses a threat to the future of humanity and life as we know it on Earth appears to have come. Here and now the human community appears to be challenged as never before by the unbridled growth of its propagation, production and consumption activities, ones we can see rampantly overspreading the surface of our planetary home.

As much as I would like to suggest we continue with “business as usual”, that option may not be open to us for much longer. Good scientific evidence from many sources indicates with remarkable clarity that humankind desperately needs to accept both human limits

http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2005/8647/letter.html

and Earth’s limitations

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CYP/is_17_112/ai_ …

If only humanity could keep doing as it likes, and as it is doing now, without threatening human wellbeing, environmental health and a good enough future for our children, then please be assured you and others would be spared my contributions to this and other discussions on the internet. After seven years of going to conferences, sponsoring Earth Day Summits on Human Population, writing letters to editors, sending thousand of emails and blogging, I would honor my long-suffering spouse by fulfilling a promise I made to her in 2001: end the AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population.

Margaret, thanks always.

Sincerely,

Steve

Steven Earl Salmony, Ph.D., M.P.A.
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001