Gross Excesses

A little over ten years ago my wife and I were members of a local group providing support for those who had adopted children from overseas. Of course our association was because of the incredible Darth Wiggles, our daughter, who was born in China. As social groups go it was obvious from the first meeting I attended that the membership was fairly upwardly mobile, which should have been no surprise since adoption is always an expensive affair. For the most part my observation on the relative wealth of the other members was an abstract affair since I personally didn't run with in the same circles with them outside the adoption group. My wife is the upwardly mobile attorney while I am for all intents a glorified blue collar wrench-turner working for an hourly wage.

All that changed when my family and I were invited to a pool party being held at the home of one of the members. Normally, I would shy away from events being held in someone's home, it simply just doesn't feel right to me, even when the host is sincere in their attempt to make everyone feel welcome. The best way I can explain my reluctance is that unless its family or close friends I really don't want relative strangers having unfettered access to my home.

However, that is exactly what the hosts of the adoption group pool party gave to everyone. The party was on a Saturday but I arrived late because my job at that time had me working every other weekend. So after speaking to my wife, the husband of the couple hosting the party allowed me access to the master bathroom so I could change from my work clothes to swimming trunks and a t-shirt. Why was I given the master bathroom to change? Good question, while I wasn't the only late arrival the house where the party was being held was, and I don't use this description lightly, astronomically huge. In fact I was astounded to see the master bathroom had a larger square footage than my living room and kitchen combined. Don't get me wrong, it was an exceptionally nice bathroom with all the nifty features you can imagine but I had an hard time trying to figure out what purpose it served.

Not really being familiar with the host family I assumed, especially since they were in the adoption group and obviously well off, that there must have been at least ten to twelve people living in that house. No, I soon learned that only five people lived there with the house being at least seven thousand square feet. As distasteful as I find it now when I think about it, at the time I leaned heavily to the conservative side of American politics and saw nothing wrong with such a small family taking so much in resources while others went homeless.

As time went on though I started notice that while the pool party host family were the worst examples, the entire basis on the American middle class seemed to center on purchasing as large a house as financially possible, with consider efforts taken by many to go beyond even that. Of course, just a few years later such a flawed practice about brought down the American economy ushering in a Second Great Depression. Before anyone runs off on a tangent telling me I don't know how unpleasant it is to live in a small house, a good chunk of my childhood had me and my siblings living in small mobile homes so I understand the desire to have more living space.

But my ultimate issue with such blatant examples of American excess centers around the assumption that resources are unlimited and, metaphorically speaking, free for the taking as long as the money or even military muscle is available. As time went on and my distaste for American excess grew I was actually shocked find out that while we only make up five percent of the world's population we create half of the globe's solid waste. Some might be okay with that and I freely admit I have no personal illusions of being some environmental saint even the most intellectually lackluster individual should understand we cannot continue this way. 

Making matters worse there are over seven billion people on the planet now all wanting something akin to an American lifestyle. This means resources, both mineral and biological, that are already past the breaking point will be stressed even further. The nice quip most deniers of human destructive impact on the planet like to throw out is why haven't we seen the effects. That's an easy damn answer, because we have been told many times its just that Americans very rarely care about anything other than their own banal concerns. In other words we refuse to listen or learn.

There are some who while understanding the environmental issues we face feel technology will save the day as it has before. That is a possibility, but human are never satisfied and will undoubtedly want more should such a technological plateau be reached. Personally I have come to believe the current basis of Western Civilization will ultimately have to change all the way to its core.The planet is not some limitless sinkhole or pantry for our waste and wants, to believe we can go on this way shows a lack of intellectual honesty or outright suicidal stupidity. 

Environmental Destruction

 The planet's natural ecosystems and regenerating bio-capacity are being severely degraded and, as a result, this compromises the ability of the planet to sustain life. Forests, fisheries, oceans, rangeland, fresh water systems (lakes, wetlands, rivers) and other natural ecosystems are all threatened while many are on the verge of collapse. Water, land and air are getting increasingly polluted, water tables are falling, soil erosion is leading to desertification, global warming is well underway, and species are dying out 1000 times faster than their natural rate of extinction.

FACTS

Forests
• We are losing forestland at a rate of 375 km2 each day. This is more than the total area of New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and Delaware combined!
• The world has already lost 80% of its original forests.
• 1.1 billion acres of tropical forest were cleared in just thirty years, between 1960 and 1990.
• Brazil lost 91.4 million acres of its tropical forest between 1980 and 1990. This is almost the total area of North and South Dakota combined.
• At the world's current rates, 5-10% of tropical forest species will become extinct every decade.

Fisheries
• 75% of all the fish stocks in the world are already either: exploited, over-exploited or recovering. 27% of coral reefs have already been and 70% of Earth's coral reefs will cease to exist within the next forty years. The world has lost half of its coastal wetlands, including mangrove swamps and salt marshes.
• In the next 30 years, as many as one-fifth of all species alive today will become extinct. 23% of all mammals and 12% of all birds’ species were considered "threatened" in 2003.

 Here is a TED Talk I found very informative: