Inspired by Dick Smith’s “Population Crisis – the
dangers of unsustainable growth for Australia”, I wrote the following and it was subsequently published in the
Shepparton weekly publication, SN Weekly, which is a newspaper affiliated with
the Shepparton News.
 |
Newspapers around the world
told of the 1969 adventure
that took man to the moon. |
My grandmother was born before we
could casually flick on the electric light; she died long after man walked on
the moon.
When “Ma”, as she was colloquially
known to all in the family, turned 90 my mother encouraged me to be at her
birthday “as it could be her last” – 15 years later I attended what was her
“last” birthday.
Ma, as you would suspect, was
married to “Pa” and about a decade of my life had passed before I discovered,
or realised, that “Ma” was actually Ellen and “Pa” was in fact John.
There was nothing intentionally
deceptive or wicked about what was a whole-of-family evolving institution, but
it has had its legacies and is a small, but integral piece of a sweeping and
far more sinister human dilemma.
Becoming a grandfather about four
years ago, the question arose as to what I would like to be known? –
“Granddad”, “Grandpa”, “Gramps” or maybe “Pa” - the idea of being called “Pa”
unearthed memories of childhood confusion and being convinced that life is
sufficiently loaded with deceptions without adding the misunderstandings of
one’s linage, I suggested “Robert”.
Beleaguered by emotional responses
from family and friends, I am now “Pa” and it feels comfortable, but on hearing
it, I immediately feel about 20 years older.
That, however, is incidental,
rather what worries me is the fact that the unintentional and imagined friendly
emotional intrigue of families shapes us, from a young age, to be unable, or
less able, to confront or deal with the intrigues of adulthood.
Beyond having their rapidly expanding
minds confused by the identity of the forebears, the natural inquisitiveness of
children is exciting, but I suggest confused, when confronted with an array of
myths from some mystical gift-bearing soul to super natural beings controlling
their fate and that their wellbeing is to be found in the stars to the fact
that the good life is simply there for the taking.
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Childhood is for most a
wonderful experience. |
Approaching adulthood armed with
those myths most people, damagingly, are soundly disconnected from reality and
frequently align themselves with one or several of those celebrated falsities.
Childhood is for most a wonderful
experience, particularly for those fortunate enough to live in such a peaceful
and bountiful place as Australia, and although it is not readily apparent,
those are the years in which the foundations are laid down for the
superstructure that is become a purposeful adulthood.
However, a life built upon, and
maligned, by myths, misinformation and misguided “facts”, can often be tragic,
leaving that same person unable to confront life’s brutal realities and
consequently unable to accept or deal with them.
Being “Pa” to two grandsons, it is
discomforting to be a part of an oblique identity fraud, for as seemingly
unimportant as it is, it is one which could have, and will have, I believe, a
significant impact on the lives of those two small boys.
In and of itself, that deception,
if I can boldly call it that, is of little significance, but multiplied by the
millions of occurrences around the world each day, it becomes an insurmountable
difficulty for humanity.
We are born as a blank slate,
except for the knowledge and experience of our forebears that is embedded in
our DNA and, beyond that, not in isolation from our environment and the
cultural norms that surround us to impact on every aspect of our being making
us whom and what we are.
We are what we are because of
nature, but the person we become is a measurable outcome of by whom and how we
are nurtured.
The past 200 years has been
particularly kind to humanity, we have learnt much and through the exercise of
powerful brains, homo-sapiens have become the pre-eminent species on earth,
changing it in a host of ways to make it more applicable and useful to their
survival.
Our endeavours have not come,
however, without a cost, particularly to many of the earth’s other species;
species without which we would not survive.
That same cost, of which many are
ignorant or simply unaccepted by others and particularly those who benefit from
the maintenance of the status quo, is unfolding in a conflation of difficulties
that individually or, even more pressingly, in a combined sense have the
capacity to decimate mankind.
Minds polluted by living a life of
so called fun and friendly myths underlined by adherence to baseless fantasies
are ill-prepared to confront and deal with realities that have never before
been imposed upon the human experiment.
Fundamental to the difficulties is
the exponential growth of human population rising from just one billion in 1800
to more than seven billion late last year and in my 65 years our numbers have
about tripled. Predictions are for those numbers to reach nine billion by 2050.
Other than for the concerns voiced
by a few individuals and some groups, the world’s burgeoning population goes
pretty much unnoticed, except by those who celebrate it for it brings for them
short-term profits.
Our swelling numbers, and the
inordinate growth they bring, are eroding the earth’s finite resources; filling
up our natural sinks, the oceans and atmosphere, with carbon dioxide; making it
near impossible to sate the thirsts of many and ease their hunger; and simply
find space for everyone to live.
It is pointless to illustrate to
many people the difficulties they face for in harking back to fun-like
emotional deceptions of youth and the nurture surrounding them as they arrived
at adulthood they are unable to understand the reason for gloom about the
future.
 |
Dick Smith's
thoughts
about the
"Population Crisis". |
Even the production of facts,
results in a contrariness that sees them react with a certain stubbornness that
frequently has them reassert beliefs that careful science supported examination
shows, clearly, they are wrong.
“Firstly,”
he wrote, “we have to change the way we measure progress; then we must stop the
wasteful use of non-renewable resources; and finally, as population growth
begins to stabilise, we must completely re-program the global economy to avoid
growth altogether”.
So, considering Dick’s advice,
rather than concern ourselves about exploring the moon, or anywhere in
outer-space, we should be exploring earth and along with that, human nature.
