Prospects for the Future
by Glenn Koenig
18 July 2006
For some reason, I have always thought of the earth as limited rather than unlimited. Even when I was young, I looked at all the wealth around me, such as the vast network of roads, huge number and size of buildings, and so on, and wondered - won't the 'stuff' we're using to make all these things run short eventually?
When it comes to the welfare of human beings on the planet, how many of us there are is perhaps the biggest issue. After that, perhaps the biggest issue is how much damage we do to the soil, the water, and the air in order to take what we want from nature. But make no mistake about it, regardless of our 'standard of living,' if there were vastly fewer of us, our 'environmental impact' would be much less.
Although there are billions of tons of coal in the ground, and billions of cubic feet of oxygen in the atmosphere, it's hard to imagine quantities that large. But now that there are also billions of we human beings on the planet, now burning that coal with that oxygen, it starts to match up.
So, am I scared? Yes. Am I excited? Yes, also. Because I want to see how it all turns out, at least for as long as I'm alive. And I also want to be involved with doing something about these two issues - our numbers and our 'use' of the planet's resources.
But with over six billion human beings, what impact can I have? I'm not sure, but I'm not going to stop trying. And I invite you to keep thinking and trying things as well, whether you want to join me directly or work in some other way.
I think I want to keep trying because, ... I love this place. I love all the wonderful things about it. I love the people, too. We're all part of it. Sure, some people seem difficult or greedy at times. Some even start wars. And there are places on the planet that are dangerous or forbidding to me as a human being. And sometimes, I get frustrated with various aspects of my life. Of course, we all do now and then.
But I cannot, somehow, be too upset with it all for too long. I always seem to come back to a great respect and love for life and nature. For ideas and invention and art and other aspects of human enterprise. For the loving gaze or touch of another human being. For the sounds and smells and feel of nature.
So, my hope is that you find ways to love it as well. And keep searching for ways to care for it, nurture it, and give it room to sustain itself at the same time.