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The Titanic metaphor, version 2
Jul. 1st, 2006 03:57 pmLink to version 1
Humanity is not just the passengers and crew of the Titanic. We're also the primary forces--the iceberg and the cold ocean--that are bringing the ship down.
Yes, I've decided we're already sinking. The iceberg was the Industrial Revolution itself, which has been tearing a wider and wider gash in the hull ever since, letting an ocean of dangerous chemicals pour into Nature and thence into our own bodies. Unless we can throw together a lot more lifeboats, we're going down with the ship, which might also be named Gaia.
At this point, it looks like steering the boat away from the iceberg won't help much. What needs doing is a crash effort to bail out the flooded areas and repair the leak. That is, we need to clean up the existing mess we've made of our air, water, and soil and take drastic steps to ensure that we don't just mess it up again immediately. Every "pollutant" that can be recycled into useful materials, should be. Whatever's left should be buried as deep as possible or, preferably, launched into the Sun.
That's not to say I don't support the lifeboat idea too, but that's our emergency backup. We should start building sealed-off, self-sufficient underground towns now so we can get the hang of it; the plus side is that future Mars colonists will need that skill too. Are you listening, President Bush?
Humanity is not just the passengers and crew of the Titanic. We're also the primary forces--the iceberg and the cold ocean--that are bringing the ship down.
Yes, I've decided we're already sinking. The iceberg was the Industrial Revolution itself, which has been tearing a wider and wider gash in the hull ever since, letting an ocean of dangerous chemicals pour into Nature and thence into our own bodies. Unless we can throw together a lot more lifeboats, we're going down with the ship, which might also be named Gaia.
At this point, it looks like steering the boat away from the iceberg won't help much. What needs doing is a crash effort to bail out the flooded areas and repair the leak. That is, we need to clean up the existing mess we've made of our air, water, and soil and take drastic steps to ensure that we don't just mess it up again immediately. Every "pollutant" that can be recycled into useful materials, should be. Whatever's left should be buried as deep as possible or, preferably, launched into the Sun.
That's not to say I don't support the lifeboat idea too, but that's our emergency backup. We should start building sealed-off, self-sufficient underground towns now so we can get the hang of it; the plus side is that future Mars colonists will need that skill too. Are you listening, President Bush?
