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I'm posting this as a "Nature" virgin. Here goes !
Global warming; pollution; public demand always in excess of available resources: if this sounds familiar it's principally because there are far too many of you out there. All of the aforementioned problems would go away if there were less of us cluttering up the planet, yet no-one seems to consider controlling human proliferation. There's no end of excuses made to blame other species, even cows getting blamed for farting methane when, if we didn't farm them in vast herds for our own consumption, they would be limited by natural controls which we prefer to prevent getting on with that particular job. Not content with ensuring that disease takes as little advantage of us as it would normally do by employing clever treatment, we seek to exacerbate the problem still more by expending vast effort to enable individuals who have the misfortune to inherit faulty genes to defeat the fate that would normally befall them to enable them to proliferate as well. I gather this is supposed to be one of our inalienable Human Rights. In short, we are determined to make sure that Darwin's unwelcome discovery will never apply to us. We would far rather it only applied to other species though there are some humans who hold the extreme view that any demonstration of Evolutionary forces shall be defeated in respect of other species towards whom such humans are prepared to go to extreme lengths to ensure their survival, no matter how tenuous their grip upon existence.
If all this goes on, unhindered by normal biological controls, then it's sure going to get very crowded around here and we'll all starve to death anyway.
Perhaps that might be the best way, in the end, as no-one appears to be giving any thought to meaningful action to prevent it. At least our long-suffering Earth will get an opportunity to start all over again with a clean sheet without humankind fouling up the planet, next time around.
Posted by: Graham Vine | February 1, 2008 04:09 PM