To:    Guardian CiF
Re:    A comparison between human (Western) civilization and a culture of microorganisms
Date: Thursday 24 May 07

In response to the Guardian article, "Nuclear policy? No thanks" by the director of Greenpeace, John Sauven.

Link to article and thread at The Guardian.
 

[aquilla], Who cares about their children and grandchildren? Not us, that's for sure!

We all think we do, of course, but as "prime apes" we are only really capable of looking and caring a short distance into the future. We care about them NOW, but not how they will be faring in 20, 50 or 100 years time.

Like a culture of microorganisms in its nutrient broth, we grow and grow and grow, because that is all we know (all evolution has taught us) to do. The fact (familiar to microbiologists) that after going through an exponential growth phase - due to depleted nutrients (natural resources) and the production of toxins (pollutants) - the culture (civilization) will crash, is unbeknown to the organisms concerned.

We don't like having ourselves compared even with our closes relatives, the apes, but when the larger picture emerges (as it does to that microbiologist in the sky), collectively, we behave no differently to a culture of bacteria - who are not even eukaryotes!

If only we recognized our own blindness and learned to see how things really are, perhaps, even now, we could turn things around. But so long as those we allow to guide and lead us are doing so well for themselves in the exponential growth phase, which, like any microorganism, they blindly assume will go on for ever, there is no chance of this happening.

For my attitude towards nuclear energy see thread below today's leader, All clear for nuclear: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2086604,00.html

http://www.spaceship-earth.org