Toward the end of Emmott's book, he compared today's sustainability crisis with his asteroid analogy, stating:
We are in almost precisely that situation now, except that there isn't a specific date and there isn't an asteroid.
As I said at the beginning, we can rightly call the situation we're in an unprecedented emergency.
The problem is us.
We urgently need to do--and I mean actually do-- something radical to avert a global catastrophe. But I don't think we will. I think we're fucked.
Hopefully, Dr. Emmott is wrong about that last sentence. To be sure, I've been trying to prove him wrong ever since I read his book five years ago.
Full disclosure. In October of 2013, I met with Dr. Emmott in London and we discussed what an urgent global shift away from eating animals might do for our chances to save our civilization.
He commented that although it would be a "huge step in the right direction," he didn't think that a radical dietary shift
alone would be enough to save us. I agree.
We're facing serious, complex issues. The Earth can support, indefinitely, only about one billion people -- as we are currently living in the USA. Yet, as we approach the eight billion mark, our population is still growing rapidly, we're consuming way too much stuff, burning way too many fossil fuels and eating the wrong food for our species.
Now that doesn't mean that we are incapable of resolving all of those complex issues. It just means that we need a visible emergency that is serious enough to jolt us into realizing that those complex, civilization-threatening issues are real.
Needed emergency? A genuine emergency that might jolt us into action is the one that's brewing right now in south Florida. Most climate scientists know that the Miami area will be underwater someday, but no one knows exactly when.
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Someday, Mother Nature will Reclaim this Real Estate
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But a sudden panic in the south Florida high end real estate market could trigger a chain reaction around the world. Millions of people would suddenly realize that, someday, many other coastal locations will also be reclaimed by nature and no longer available or suitable for human habitat.
Award-winning journalist and author Dahr Jamail and Stuart Scott talk about that impending south Florida real estate crisis in an 11-minute video included in this recent BSB:
After our world leaders are jolted into coming to grips with the issues we face, some of them may be interested in examining a potentially game-changing idea that I described in a recent blog. That "idea" involves a massive lifestyle re-invention project in the USA that could serve as a model for the rest of the world.
It features an envisioned 2200-mile, ten mile wide, "green" corridor from Atlanta to Los Angeles - a region carefully planned as a highly efficient, beautiful, comfortable and very livable habitat for up to 100 million Americans.
When that vision is fully deployed in other regions of the USA and abroad, Mother Nature might finally be content with having us humans as long-term "guests" on her planet. Check out the details here:
Bottom Line.
Many millions of conscientious Earthlings are worried about the environment and are embracing all sorts of ideas and initiatives for making things better. But, admirable as they are, those disparate efforts are not going to get us out of the massive hole we've dug for ourselves.
Colonizing Mars is not the answer. What we need are urgently executed, globally coordinated initiatives aimed at all of the elements of our civilization that are preventing us from living in harmony with nature.
What can you do?
You can circulate this BSB along with the above "creative idea" article with prominent journalists thought leaders and elected officials that you admire.
I have sent this information to Jeremy Rifkin, a well-connected visionary who knows a thing or two about the kind of "green" global economy that we must have. He also knows that eating animals is not compatible with a viable future for humans.
Speaking in NYC on Oct. 17.
Do you have friends in or near New York City? If so, please tell them that I will be delivering a "big picture" presentation (with emphasis on hope) at a venue near Penn Station, beginning at 6:30 pm and including a plant-based, pot-luck dinner. Click here for details.
Until next time, just remember...
Humanity is on a collision course with Nature.
A damaged Nature will survive. We may not.
We must change course to avert an ecological disaster.
Finally,
here are a few related "Bite-Size Blogs" (BSBs) from the past few weeks:
