Disparity between natural and artificial operations

Natural forces control the four natural operations that have characterized what happened in the terrestrial and marine ecosystems during evolution over aeons, do so now and will continue to do so far into the future. They are:

·         A host of physical operations cycle as they influence what happens. Earth cycling around the Sun: the Moon cycling around Earth: the seasons, tides, the hydrological cycle all play their part in controlling continuing operations.

·         Flora, fauna and fungi individually have limited life times but collectively have a continuing impact on operations by reproducing. Information in their seeds defines what natural forces will do in controlling functioning and growth during their lives.

·         Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are traumatic natural events that occur spasmodically due to the abnormal operation of powerful underground natural forces. They are disruptive but are often constructive. 

·         Various forms of friction continually age all forms of geological and biological systems.

In combination, these measures constitute the self-organizing and self-regulating, sustainable natural processes of evolution.

On the other hand, humans have invented and implemented technological systems in recent millennia that:

·                                       In most cases use limited and irreplaceable natural material resources to provide the energy and material to construct, operate and maintain the systems during their limited lifetime.

·                                        Produce waste material that on many occasions pollutes land, sea, air and organisms, including humans, and disrupts ecosystems by causing climate change and ocean heating and acidification. Only some of this waste can be recycled by using other technological systems.

·                                       These systems can only be reproduced if sufficient natural material resources are still available.

·                                          Various forms of friction continually age these technological systems by doing negative work.

·                                          Occasional failures of technological systems are traumatic events that are both disruptive and destructive.

In combination, these measures constitute the financially semi-regulated, semi-organized and unsustainable operation of industrialized civilization. 

This difference between natural physical operations and the artificial physical operations of industrialized civilization is the stark reality that people, including the powerful in society, do not take into account because they do not really understand what the foundational principles are. They believe in the power of intangible money

Smokers' rivals

Society is slowly learning the lesson that smoking often causes lung cancer. Quit campaigns are getting the message out in many sections of the global community.

Ironically, society has yet to come to grips with some much bigger problems. Smoking only affects the smokers and those nearby. It will cause the die off of quite a few due to lung cancer and associated health problems. But smoking is an isolated, personal  addiction. Society in general, particularly in developed and developing countries, is addicted to using up vast amounts of natural bounty in an unsustainable manner. This is a holistic addition with irrevocable dire consequences for most of the global population.

How many people think for a moment as their cars exhaust fumes polluting the atmosphere that they are contributing to the destruction of a hydrocarbon fuel that it took natural forces eons to produce. There is no need for society to mount a Quit campaign on this issue as natural forces will do the job in time: the crustal stock of oil is running out and the industry is finding it hard to extract what remains.

People will find it hard to cope with that problem as they are addicted to using their cars and flying in airliners. However, a bigger problem is that there are too many people around the globe. Billions are going hungry even though there is now an abundance of food as fossil fuels foster agriculture while aiding transportation and storage of food. Water supply and sanitation are also heavily dependent on the use of some of the remaining fossil fuels. Coping with the trauma of the inevitable die off will be a trauma much harder than deal with than quitting smoking.

Climate change is now causing isolated problems taxing the skills and resources of many communities around the globe. Society at large has yet to understand that it is an irreversible disruption of natural forces caused by its addiction to cheap energy by using fossil fuels. There is no feasible quitting of this process by Homo sapiens. And climate change is only one aspect of the deleterious impact of the systems of civilization. Pollution of land, sea, air and all species is creating a host of problems worse than smoking. Nature bats last in all physical processes.

Society has an insane belief in the ability of technology to overcome developing problems when, in actual fact, it is technology that has instigated these problems by making use of some natural forces to irreversibly use up limited natural resources and irrevocably produce material wastes. Society has a problem in understanding that reality as it is besotted with the illusory temporary power of money.

Technology has provided society with a wide range goods and services that are useful for a time. For example, cars are an endangered species even though very few give a moments thought to that addition. Society will find it hard to cope with the withdrawal that monstrous substitute for the facility of legs. However, an even greater problem will be the withdrawal of the recording and communication aids provided by the wide range of electronic devices from computers to iPods that have come online in recent decades. The rapid growth in the use of these devices is unsustainable as they are made of irreplaceable materials. But users of these devices are so bemused by the facility by this information revolution that they are unable to comprehend that it cannot last more than a few decades.

If you think that these are the only problems that society will have to face up to, then you are wrong.
The infrastructure of civilization, including the cities, are addicted to using some of the remaining natural resources to enable their functioning and cope with their irrevocable aging. As society can do nothing to stop this process, all they can do is try to power down. A few smart people are already fleeing from cities in emulation of some passengers taking to lifeboats as the Titanic headed for the iceberg.

I am tired

I am seventy nine. So my body is tired. My heart finds it more difficult to pump blood through aged arteries and veins. The same consequence of aging applies to my kidneys and other materialistic processes in my body. But it does not apply to my thoughts. I continue to learn what is going wrong in how civilization operates due to the unwise, anthropocentric decisions of our species.

I am tired of the widespread rhetoric that civilization can continue to grow, despite the fact that the operation of civilization entails the irreversible consumption of limited natural resources.

I am tired of the many forms of marketing of the fallacious benefits of consumption as landfills, ground waters and the oceans fill up with toxic wastes as the stuff is thrown away.

I am tired of the rhetoric that fosters working hard to manufacture bits and pieces so the businesses can make money to enhance the ability to devastate the environment.

I am tired of the claims that science is advancing the frontiers of knowledge  when the reality is that science has not provided understanding of the fundamentals. Climate change is but one example of the lack of understanding by scientists of the physical reality that civilization irreversibly devastates its life support system.

I am tired of the promotion of technology as a means of improving our standard of living when it is really improving the ability to use up the remaining natural resources, destroy biodiversity, hasten species extinction and pollute land, sea. air and us.

I am tired of the claims of progress by our leaders when I know that the operation of civilization is unsustainable.

So I am very tired of the hallucinations that society has. I now realize that my generation enjoyed a free lunch. So I am sorry that future generations will have to pay for it.

Denis Frith