Lives in the Balance
by Philip Bailey
The numbers flashed through his head, points of stabbing, hurting light that seemed beyond comprehension. 6 billion people and we'll have 12 billion in 30 years. CO2 has doubled and will triple.
Energy, electricity, oil, gas for everything, homes, cars, lights, factories, everything. We've used more energy in the past 32 years than the previous 10,000 years put together.
The fired ruin of the rainforest continues, my backyard is pillaged, the hill is bare and more houses are pushed up, more waste from one house built here than a hundred in India.
What does it mean, what does it mean, what does it mean, what does it mean
when someone says that nature will balance such imbalance? A holocaust of disease, starvation, death spreading over the planet. Unknown disease without recourse. Not my unknown grandchildren but my child, not my child but me.
9 cases of flu and a million chickens must die but there's no safe place to bury them and dogs, cats, pigeons must die too because they ate the dead diseased chicken, how soon will I see that specter?
So, it seems Malthus was right, very right and we cannot continue into the future as we are.
The seasons may stop turning, the seasons may become insane but it's time to change. Change lifts up, innovates, discovers, inspires, and creates hope.
As the Greek said, Know thyself. It all starts here, it must start now, and it must be me.
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