Portending the Great Smothering
Source
Animals in the wild go to great lengths to avoid letting on signs of injuries that they have sustained. Most species are more inclined to prey upon what would be seen as a more easy meal.
And in spite of our opposable thumbs and modest technological up on the competition, living within society often feels like nothing more than another kind of jungle with relationships of predators and prey given a veneer of sophistication or civility.
I am one of seven and a half billion plus of my species... or so it is estimated.
I am one of a species that, by and large, feels that it is correct to further balloon our populations through procreation - with very few sparing a thought to the ramifications of being so foolish in ones actions while residing upon a ball of earth and fire encased in a tiny bubble of water and wind, floating around within a massive universe.
By and large we feel entitled to multiply. Its a human "right". Why not? Any person knows a neighbour who has had six children and may perhaps even be rolling around in child-support monies, especially if "the father is unknown".
One doesn't need a richness of finance to engage in such. Quite the contrary. The poorest tend to have more offspring. Some with the excuse that they want cheap labour to toil in their fields (slavery is apparently still fine if its in the family).
No - another kind of poverty is at play. A 'poverty in perspective' is what I would call it - although some would term it a lack of education - hence producing 'ignorance'.
A far greater ignorance is true of those who are aware of that which they are doing - and wantonly persist in their ways. Some would point to a disparity between nations as justification, claiming a need to remain "competitive".
But I personally feel that it all comes back to a base pride - a desire to dominate over others, and a willingness to spite everybody's future to ensure one's relative position in the scheme of things in the urban jungle.
I do not know if this World will survive another century of human dominance over this planet. Under the heel of my species every creature great and small is either a prisoner, on the retreat or on the run - and that includes members of our own species.
I feel that nothing short of a decimation event will reverse this trend - we are too far gone and, by and large, too impoverished in perspective to see, let alone to take action to remedy that which should be as obvious as the rise of the Sun in the East.
Is there another path?