B.A.L.L.S.: Until the end of time
Every week I write about smaller irritations
in our society, hence the acronym
B.A.L.L.S. — Bitching about Life in London
and Society. Looking at all the smaller irritations
is slowly spelling out a pattern to me.
What is missing is a sense of perspective. I
am not sure how many people align themselves
with the bigger picture; not only in
time but also in place. I surmise that if we all
adopted a philosophy that embraces a bigger
picture, most all of these smaller irritations
would disappear. I do not profess to know
what the bigger picture is, but perspective is
a good starting point.
Right now we are living on a finite planet in a finite universe. When is the last time you contemplated a star that just went supernova 200 million lightyears away? When did you stop in your daily actions and wonder what kind of life is hidden under 100 miles of ice on Europa? Or even closer to home: right now there is a child starving in Bali (there are 2.2 billion children on our planet, one billion live in poverty), and right now there is a family without electricity in sub-Saharan Africa.
When did we become so disjointed from the universe? We live with these blinders on that let in only what we want to see and what we are taught. For instance: we are taught that a series of letters must go together in a specified way, or it is wrong. Regard the following:
"The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to rscheearch, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae..."
What this illustrates is that there are many ways to look at the world. There are ways to look at the universe that no teacher teaches, that no parent parents, that no priest preaches and no TV televises.
Our lack (as a global community) of foresight has already impacted our very source of survival. Right now, if we somehow cut all carbon emissions, our planet's atmosphere would take over 1,000 years to restore itself back to the levels of carbon dioxide there were in 1850. The global temperature will rise an estimated four degrees by the end of the century.* This is set; it is already happening and only stands true if all carbon emissions cease now, today. This will already have a catastrophic impact on our Earth as we know it, and that is just if we cut all carbon emission now. We won't.
There is no other time in the history of our Earth that has seen such an unchecked diversion from the normal flow of weather and climate patterns. Even global warming after the last ice age took over 5,000 years to achieve this kind of differential. We are driving, littering, exploiting and trashing the planet so fast that we are undermining our very ability to survive. Thank you, analyst Victor Lebow and Baby Boomers! As you guys sit in your old age homes and contemplate your youth as pot-smoking, acid-dropping idealist hippies in the '60s, your coming- of-age as cocaine-sniffing, robe-wearing, orgy disco dancers in the '70s, and your depthless desire to obtain material goods as trophies of your status, at any cost, in the ultra-conservative '80s. Hippie-disco-yuppies — thanks for handing us your garbage to clean up.
We could ignore this; we probably will. Then, when it comes down to the wire, we will invent some way to take over other planets, giving us a nearly infinite number of worlds to exploit and destroy. Kind of a WALL-E-ism. That thought brings me no comfort, as I have two daughters at home that need to deal with this now.
Let's face it, in 7.5 billion years our planet is doomed, anyway. In 7.5 billion years, helium build-up at the core of the sun will reach critical mass, turning it into a red dwarf, thus the end of our solar system as we know it. So we might as well chuck our garbage on the ground, take up two seats on a bus, leave our shopping carts in the middle of the parking lot, don't say thank you when someone holds open a door for you, wait in long lines of cars at a Tim Horton's and crank the tunes at 3 a.m.
I do believe that most people care about our planet, but the percentage of those that don't outweighs those willing to stand up and do something about it. Until more people step forward, we will continue to have war, repression, hunger, inequality and the wanton destruction of our home, the Earth.
With people in chaos, we grow up in sorrow. Still looking ahead for a better tomorrow.
* IPCC (2007) - Climate sensitivity and feedbacks. Pachauri, R.K and Reisinger, A.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
Right now we are living on a finite planet in a finite universe. When is the last time you contemplated a star that just went supernova 200 million lightyears away? When did you stop in your daily actions and wonder what kind of life is hidden under 100 miles of ice on Europa? Or even closer to home: right now there is a child starving in Bali (there are 2.2 billion children on our planet, one billion live in poverty), and right now there is a family without electricity in sub-Saharan Africa.
When did we become so disjointed from the universe? We live with these blinders on that let in only what we want to see and what we are taught. For instance: we are taught that a series of letters must go together in a specified way, or it is wrong. Regard the following:
"The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to rscheearch, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae..."
What this illustrates is that there are many ways to look at the world. There are ways to look at the universe that no teacher teaches, that no parent parents, that no priest preaches and no TV televises.
Our lack (as a global community) of foresight has already impacted our very source of survival. Right now, if we somehow cut all carbon emissions, our planet's atmosphere would take over 1,000 years to restore itself back to the levels of carbon dioxide there were in 1850. The global temperature will rise an estimated four degrees by the end of the century.* This is set; it is already happening and only stands true if all carbon emissions cease now, today. This will already have a catastrophic impact on our Earth as we know it, and that is just if we cut all carbon emission now. We won't.
There is no other time in the history of our Earth that has seen such an unchecked diversion from the normal flow of weather and climate patterns. Even global warming after the last ice age took over 5,000 years to achieve this kind of differential. We are driving, littering, exploiting and trashing the planet so fast that we are undermining our very ability to survive. Thank you, analyst Victor Lebow and Baby Boomers! As you guys sit in your old age homes and contemplate your youth as pot-smoking, acid-dropping idealist hippies in the '60s, your coming- of-age as cocaine-sniffing, robe-wearing, orgy disco dancers in the '70s, and your depthless desire to obtain material goods as trophies of your status, at any cost, in the ultra-conservative '80s. Hippie-disco-yuppies — thanks for handing us your garbage to clean up.
We could ignore this; we probably will. Then, when it comes down to the wire, we will invent some way to take over other planets, giving us a nearly infinite number of worlds to exploit and destroy. Kind of a WALL-E-ism. That thought brings me no comfort, as I have two daughters at home that need to deal with this now.
Let's face it, in 7.5 billion years our planet is doomed, anyway. In 7.5 billion years, helium build-up at the core of the sun will reach critical mass, turning it into a red dwarf, thus the end of our solar system as we know it. So we might as well chuck our garbage on the ground, take up two seats on a bus, leave our shopping carts in the middle of the parking lot, don't say thank you when someone holds open a door for you, wait in long lines of cars at a Tim Horton's and crank the tunes at 3 a.m.
I do believe that most people care about our planet, but the percentage of those that don't outweighs those willing to stand up and do something about it. Until more people step forward, we will continue to have war, repression, hunger, inequality and the wanton destruction of our home, the Earth.
With people in chaos, we grow up in sorrow. Still looking ahead for a better tomorrow.
* IPCC (2007) - Climate sensitivity and feedbacks. Pachauri, R.K and Reisinger, A.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
