Do you ever stop to think about what it would be like to lose all of the benefits of modern civilization? It’s only through virtually new technological achievements that we’ve become able to have medical procedures from anything to fungus toenail laser treatment to having dandruff problems fixed. The idea of going back to live closer to Mother Earth in a place like Long Island sounds nice, but what if you needed Long Island fungus toenail treatment and lacked the resources to have it done? Chances are, it wouldn’t be pretty!
Yet this may be what happens. While few think many of the conspiracy theories currently floating around about 2012 and the end of the world global warming being a real danger are becoming less and less. Even if you deny that this climate change is happening, you still have to think about things like peak oil, and the unsustainable nature of the way we currently exist.
“Unsustainable” means that our current way of life cannot go on eternally. This is obviously the case, as our society is run on what are mostly non-renewable resources such as coal and oil. It’s been guessed that planet Earth may now be fifty percent through all available oil stocks, while the level of consumer demand for oil continues to rise. This is due to the economic improvement of densely populated countries such as China and India.
So what happens when all the oil is gone? The hope is that scientists will by that time have discovered a way that we can run wholly on solar and wind as fuels, since they’re one hundred percent renewable. But how long have we got left?
Some, such as the author of “Endgame” Derrick Jensen, have posited the theory that reverting to a Stone Age way of life may actually be what’s best for humanity. It sounds silly at first, but what Jensen is advocating is a lifestyle that is far closer to nature, and pays respects to the items it takes from the natural world. It’s been stated by American Indians that if one kills a fish from the ocean to eat, that individual now has a responsibility to that community of fish, to make sure that it survives. Such an idea seems ridiculously quaint to modern ears, yet this way of living is far more sustainable, and ultimately safer, than the way we are currently behaving.
Demand for non-renewable resources will continue to increase as the resources themselves become more and more reduced. What will it seem like when we realize we’re out of oil? Not many people want to be around to find out how it will be. One of the reasons many American politicians, even liberals, are so set on creating stability in the Middle East is that these countries hold large amounts of oil that may be required to keep civilization from falling apart.
Whatever the result of our current lifestyle will be, there’s a large chance that it will be something that the youth of today will witness within their lifetimes. We’ll just have to wait and see.
