Another serious issue but let’s talk seriously every now and then. Talking means acknowledging and perhaps change. It’s staggering how humans exploit resources with a very short view on how we’re using our planet and how our children won’t have much left (not that I want any children).
This started during the infamous industrial revolution but hugely accelerated in my times. Late 20th century and early 21st century is a peak on how humans destroy each other through incredible exploitation of our planet. Take oil and gas. We’ve been drilling for black gold for over a century now but now that demand is higher than ever, we’re making an incredible and sometimes stupid effort to reach for the profit. Drilling in the ocean is terrible but now we have infamous shale gas extraction where tons of chemicals are pumped into the ground and very often contaminate groundwater. All for a profit.
So yesterday Auckland Council’s water management company made an announcement that water levels are getting low in Auckland so we should take shorter showers. They didn’t make any other restrictions, not for businesses or farmers. I agree we should take shorter showers but we should all contribute to preserving water permanently.
Water became new gold. It’s a resource like any other and it belongs to everyone because in the end it circulates around the planet and it’s not up to us o decide who owns it. Despite that, we exploit usually poor countries and communities just because they’re vulnerable and then we sell them clean water for a premium price. Did you ever look at the bottle of water that cost $2 for 500ml and thought “seriously”? Especially that this water is very often extracted without much fees (in New Zealand it’s usually about $1000 per year, that is it – 500 small bottles and you have ROI).
What I’m getting into is that we’re constantly pushing forward and constantly want progress, power and money. But what we are not looking into as humanity is a long term effect. 10,000 years ago a caveman didn’t think what’s going to happen in 2020 but I don’t blame them. They were primitive people. Today we only look at what’s going to happen in the next decade. Maybe in the next couple of decades. But I honestly have never ever heard anyone thinking – what is going to happen in 10,000 years? Will they still need oil ? Will they have enough clean water? Will they need gold and diamonds? I mean imagine that in 5,000 years the only way to save humanity is a ton of gold for magic engine that will take us to another planet and turns out we used it all for earings.
The short sight of humanity is sad and unfortunately repeats across centuries. We had wars that were similar to previous ones and we just didn’t learn much. I mean seriously – Hitler (thankfully) was an idiot too – he lost by literally repeating the mistake of Napoleon, going to war in winter to Russia is like jumping into a volcano crater. And I hope that this short sight will change, that global leaders will start thinking really ahead and monitoring how our humans’ existence really affects the planet and everyone’s future. Because short 4 minute showers are such a short term solution. Educating people on how to daily preserve the water – that’s the one that should be all over media now.