UN report warns of literal existential threat we face

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Sid Schwab

Herald columnist

Recently I lost a friend because he thought I’d called all Trump supporters, including him, racist. In fact, I was calling on non-racist supporters to speak out against Trump’s deliberate manipulation of those he believes are racists. He was unconvinced.

I wonder how he feels about Trump telling four Democratic congresswomen of color, three of whom are American-born, the fourth a naturalized citizen, to go back to their “broken” countries. As Trump claims they’re “pro-terrorists,” feigns outrage that they say “vile” things and use the F-word in public, one concludes the White House mirrors are broken.

If you defend Trump’s latest, it’s because he hates the people you hate. Because of you, he sees it as winning strategy, sees you as an easy mark. If that characterization offends, take a stand. Or stop pretending.

Like the above-the-law dictator he imagines himself to be, Trump is attacking America itself, made great since its founding by disagreement and protest. It’s who we are. Except for Trump’s latest ralliers, chanting “Send her back.” Whom he praised, gloating. (YouTube: tinyurl.com/2gloat4you) If, in your heart, you’re chanting with them, you have no idea what patriotism is nor what America is about; you make it clear it CAN happen here.

But enough. Believe it or not, we’re facing something even worse than Trump: mass extinction.

Commissioned by the United Nations, a summary of the results of a three-year study on the magnitude of the problem has recently been published. Comprising the work of five-hundred scientists and referencing 1,500 research papers, it covers a range of earthly perils. Driving Mercer Street to downtown Seattle lately, one comes to understand. In addition to traffic that allows three cars per stoplight on a good day, high-rise dwellings are sprouting like asparagus, block after crowded block, readying to house more people by the thousands. There are too damn many of us.

“The essential, interconnected web of life on Earth is getting smaller and increasingly frayed,” wrote the co-chair of the 1,800-page report. “This loss is a direct result of human activity and constitutes a direct threat to human well-being in all regions of the world.”

We’re bludgeoning our planet to a slow but certain death. As we heat it up to intolerable levels, deplete finite resources, cause the elimination of millions of species, we’re destroying the home whose complex ecosystems sustain us. And though it’s obvious what needs doing, it’s increasingly unlikely to happen, for humanity lacks the required collective wisdom, and America’s leadership is no more. Increasingly, we seem to be looking backward, wishfully, not ahead and clear-eyed.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/schwab-un-report-warns-of-literal-existential-threat-we-face/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=7b5899e115-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-7b5899e115-228635337

[dhill926]

1. K & R...

[Moral Compass]

2. Overpopulation

Every problem we have is caused by one thing—as this piece says—there are too damn many of us.

The world is several billion over its carrying capacity.
This means that deforestation, global warming, and general ecological destruction will continue.

The economic paradigm we operate under—an economy where unbridled consumption is not only encouraged, but is necessary to forestall economic collapse—is utterly unsustainable.

There will be war for what remains—as all beauty is despoiled and all morality is cast aside—while we fight in the ruins.

[calimary]

3. Yep. Sad but true. If we don't start controlling population growth, we're doomed.

[alwaysinasnit]

4. Yup, patriarchy and it's able lieutenant, the Catholic Church, have a lot to answer for.

And yes, I was born into the Catholic faith. And as George Carlin so eloquently put it (paraphrasing), "I was a Catholic until I reached the age of reason."

[Moral Compass]

6. Also reared Catholic

I’m right there with Mr. Carlin—I explicitly left the church at 13.

Have not been back except for weddings and funerals. I, of course, didn’t take communion. I’m an apostate not a barbarian.

[alwaysinasnit]

8. Haha. I guess I was a bit of a late bloomer. My age of reason came around 15-16.

[c-rational]

5. "We are bludgeoning our planet to a slow but certain death" - well chosen words. Makes me think

of the movie Avatar, Those other worldly beings like the American Indians understood the interconnectedness of life. We were not born into this world we came our of it. How we fail to recognize truth.

[Richard D]

7. I've been aware of this for decades.

The problem is, so have many other people. Voluntary control does not work, especially among religious fanatics who believe their God wants them to have very large families (10+ children). Limiting couples to one child for a couple of hundred years is the only real solution. Not many would comply with that, and revolution would be likely. Otherwise, the planet will control our population, and that won't be pretty at all.

[Gumboot]

9. Been thinking about the over-population problem for years.

Wondering at what point the UN mandates a global one child policy?

(which America, Britain and Israel will then try to block...)

[pm_me_grey_paint]

10. It would help if people would stop attempting to bully women into having children they don't want...

That and the right wingers to stop screwing with access to birth control due to their "religious freedom"....

If you don't want kids, its amazing how many people get offended about it and will bully you about it. From doctors who are only worried about your fertility rather than your quality of life to parents pressuring their children for grandchildren to complete strangers calling you "selfish".