Dr Suzuki (right) took less than 100 pages to articulate the difficulties we (humanity) face, how those difficulties evolved and then provided an understanding of the biological equations on which humanity depends and must observe if it is to endure.
Earth’s thin biosphere and the richness of its buried sunlight (fossil fuels) has enabled us to prosper in every sense, allowing our numbers to grow exponentially and now, according to Dr Suzuki in a word picture he painted, we are just one minute away from exhausting everything that makes the world habitable for humans.
He illustrated our nearness to the precipice through encouraging readers to imagine a test tube of food with just one bacterium when the clock starts and then just 59 minutes later, because the bacterium grows and divides and experiences exponential growth, the test tube is all but filled.
The test tube in its finite size and food supply represents earth and its other resources, the bacterium represents humans (us) and as there is no other test tube, and so space, Dr Suzuki illustrates that we face an uncertain future.Humanity faces a dilemma that most can’t or won’t comprehend and the urgency Dr Suzuki illustrates collapses for the want and strong a decisive leadership, a leadership that will introduce restrictions to and imposts on our freewheeling lifestyle that is eroding, quickly, our place here on earth.
Humans are, unquestionably, the smartest beings in the universe, but that intelligence brings with it a burden; a burden that could see the human race extinguished.
The need for those strong, decisive and positive leaders is, after reading Dr Suzuki’s newest work, pressingly urgent, but equally urgent is the need for followers – people who understand and accept the articulated dilemmas and want to work with those leaders to ensure the world we bequest to those who follow continues to be habitable.
