There is a hypothesis percolating in my skull and Id enjoy your thoughts: In Yemen, people are going to war over access to water. Within the next decade, Yemen will be out of water, with several countries close behind. The so-called Arab Spring, the Syrian rebellion, and the sectarian conflicts throughout the Middle East were instigated by extended and concurrent drought compounded by lengthening periods of extreme heat and catastrophic storms. Before my son graduates high school, several mega-cities will have flooded like New York, but much worse. It is possible to see the collapse of the entire Brazilian rainforest due to drought while as many as 100 million people will be displaced by flooding elsewhere. These together will impact the global economy - and the core food supply chain - like a thermonuclear device. Climate Change has not pushed the United States (yet) into the degree of strife many 3rd world countries now face. Americas wealth provides something of a defense for many, though ranchers and farmers in the Midwest and the South are feeling the acute effects, as do the elderly and the very poor. However, what happens when population-wide stress slowly creeps upward? Think about Seasonal Affect Disorder for a moment; some people are so sensitive to available daylight that they may experience lengthy periods of depression in regions that experience a high number of overcast days. What happens to the general American stress level when otherwise dependable weather destroys 1/3 of the US grain crop; kills thousands of beef and dairy cattle; induces population-wide trauma in those areas hit hard by catastrophic storms...? Some would claim that we are the most successful species to evolve on Earth. Since I am speaking from inside that group, I am not certain that I am one to judge, as I am likely biased. However, what is Nature to do with an organism that has completely outgrown population-controlling predators, overcome growth-limiting diseases, and discovered how to tap into mineral resources in order to people a planetary habitat beyond its natural carrying capacity? Id like you to look at the following video clip I loaded into YouTube. What you will see is from of a fairly famous monkey attraction in Japan, and Id like you to first take note of the fact that each receives a full meal. No one goes hungry. In fact, excess food is cleaned away after each feeding. What you will see is *not* like a population of mice in a cage that has grown beyond food resources. No one is going to starve in this monkey habitat, and there are other places to go (off camera) so space is not restrictive either. Having said that, I think you will see images - perhaps frightening - that you have seen before. I believe that you will observe behaviors that you might remember from the riots in Los Angeles, food trucks entering starving African villages, and humanitarian relief efforts around the globe. youtu.be/B9IhYBB3P5Y Please. Again, there are no animals going hungry in that clip, and there was room for all in the habitat. However, the monkeys seem to perceive a rather intense level of competition for resources. Notice how they eat; like pedestrians in any big city, they move about without looking each other in the eye, keep focused on their business, and never engage socially. Engagement is typically a fearful reaction; mothers nurse their infants while on high alert, groups of young males move in packs and mug less dominant older males, and feeding monkeys scream while leaping over each others backs to avoid direct contact. So, what is the problem? If it is not over-crowding or starvation, why the complete social disorder? Because the population grossly exceeds the natural social group size. There are no roles to assume, no system of rank within a distinct hierarchy, and thus no way to function with certainty within the social milieu. Think of what it was like in New York during the actual storm of Super Storm Sandy. How would you know who to count on, who could you turn to, and who must you absolutely avoid? You dont know. Most of us dont, and rather than live with that constant stress, we willfully ignore the problem. And then we ignore that we cannot pay our bills this month; or that we are out of breath after only two flights of stairs; or that the climate is changing; or that our food is poison; or that the air we breathe enhances the risk of asthma in our kids; or the little lump in our breast that is probably nothing anyway; or that nagging tightness in our chest... Maybe this is what Nature does with a species that has become too clever to manage itself, let alone its resources. Maybe Nature builds into that species a highly sensitive set of environmentally responsive genetic switches that radicalizes behavior. Maybe extremism, whether religious or political, is a natural form of social disorder for a species that has conquered population-limiting infectious disease, intended to result in negative population growth through a very different means. Maybe if Nature cannot knock our population down through famine or disease, she gets us to fight each other while others set the house on fire.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 06:20:45 +0000
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