The granting of mercy
Our example with the barrel of must was very
clear,
but in one point it does not describe exactly
the conditions on Earth.
In the barrel all the food for the fermentation
bacteria,
all the available energy, is deposited in the form of
must
within the walls of the barrel. No other energy amount
will come, and what we already have will diminish
continuously, to keep the fermentation bacteria alive.
The fermentation bacteria are doomed either way.
They will go through a phase of development,
they will have their population explosion,
their final total extinction however is inevitable.
With us on Earth, how is the situation?
In general, the situation is the same
and our behaviour exactly the same
as that of the fermentation bacteria.
We reproduce explosively, we squander the energy
resources of the planet (coal, oil, natural gas) and
we mess up our whole habitat with our waste.
Death by starvation,
death by poisoning or
both of them simultaneously?
The end will be either death
from starvation or death from poisoning.
Or maybe both of them together, as it seem likely.
In the big cities people are cocking on exhaust
gases,
while in other areas people are starving.
But there is a difference and a very significant one.
While the condemnation of the fermentation
bacteria
is irrevocable, we can be perhaps granted mercy.
The cause of this difference is the sun.
The sun sends us all the time energy at constant rate.
In contrast to the barrel, the Earth is an open
system
continuously supplied with energy.
Energy that will not run out at last in the near future.
The sun will continue to radiate for some billion years more.
We are not irrevocably condemned as the fermentation bacteria are.
We can continue to live on Earth for a long time.
If something will lead us to extinction, this will
be
our own stupidity and not the laws of nature.
If we were reasonable, that means if we were
worthy
of this reprieve, we would sit at our computer and
would say:
"Our energy income is just this.
What the sun sends us every day
and what our
plants can store.
There is no more.
The reserves of the earth, so to say our energy
fortune,
coal, oil,
methane, and the rest, let us leave them as they are,
because
otherwise the equilibrium will be overthrown, and we
will create
problems rather than solve them.
As prudent managers we have to live according to our
income.
The sun sends us only so much
energy,
so we can
support only so many people.
That's it".
This is the limit. Only so many people fit on the earth.
Only so many can live off the energy that the sun sends us.
On the condition of course, that we take care of the waste.
This would be reasonable behaviour.
There is room for so many, that many will live here.
The other way:
we reproduce without limits,
no matter what happens,
and we squander the resources of the earth,
and we drown in our own dirt, this is
not the behaviour of rational beings.
This is the
mentality of fermentation
bacteria,
and as long as we adhere to
this practice,
we run towards the same end
as the fermentation
bacteria with ever
increasing speed.
Our future depends
(fortunately or unfortunately?)
on our own attitude.
So, what we do? On our behaviour will depend it
if we get our reprieve granted or not.
Are we behaving wisely or are we throwing a wild
party and accelerating the end?
Are we behaving like good landlords of the planet,
or are we wasting energy, water, raw materials and
filling everything with our garbage?
If we had the corresponding diagrams
• for the increase in energy consumption,
• for the increase in water consumption,
• for the increase in raw material consumption and
• for the increasing pollution of the environment,
we would have the same picture as the chart of population growth.
Everywhere explosion!
No need to look at any charts,
you know, that it is so.