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disinterested pursuit of the truth about the fittest and that the fittest survive. human tragicomedy, we must, now and
the world we live in was at odds with It took the killing of untold millions first of all, recognize that the impending
the assumptions on which we based of human beings for the realization disaster is of our own making. It is
our scientific research. Inevitably the to begin to dawn that the path of the logical conclusion to the history
gap grew, and eventually it became power and pride leads into the abyss. of a species that not only considers
unbridgeable. The turning point came Today we are facing that abyss. The itself superior to all other creatures
in the 19th century with Darwin’s epoch- assumption that the world but thinks the world exists for its sole
making work in evolutionary biology. exists for our benefit has benefit, as its own private fiefdom, and
At first, the demonstration that resulted in the devastation that sees itself as nature’s supreme
Natural Selection had led to the of the entire planet. The achievement, glorious, free and immortal.
emergence of the human species heedless pursuit of our pleasure, our William R Catton, Jr, in his study
seemed to confirm the idea that homo comfort, our happiness and our Overshoot (1980), shows that the suicidal
sapiens constituted the pinnacle of the ceaseless gratification, regardless of the course we are embarked on is common in
evolution of life, its supreme achievement. other creatures, is destroying the very nature. It is the inevitable fate of species
It took time for the implications conditions on which we depend for our an evolutionary fluke has endowed with
of Darwin’s discoveries to be fully survival. Our forests, the earth’s lungs, some special quality that made them
understood. Being the last to are being brutally amputated by the axe particularly successful in the struggle for
arrive on the scene doesn’t and the chainsaw; our rivers and oceans survival. Their very success induces them
mean you’re the focus of are dying from industrial pollution to overshoot the limits of sustainable
the event. Far from supporting which is spreading disease around the survival and deconstruct their habitat. In
any notion of human supremacy in world; global warming is engendering fact, their success is their undoing. That
the order of nature, evolution clearly increasingly extreme weather conditions pattern ominously fits homo sapiens.
argued both the randomness and the producing catastrophic storms, floods, So, perhaps we are simply acting out
transience of our appearance on this droughts, fires; the polar ice caps are the laws of nature. But our species is
planet. Had the Cretaceous comet melting and will put much of the unique for its ability to think, to abstract
not cleared the decks for a luxuriant civilized world under water within this and to make predictions. That, in turn,
mammalian boom, we would not be century; the biosphere is undergoing a enables us to adjust our actions to bring
here to talk about it. Changing habitats mass extinction – except for its human about specific events or to prevent them
and adaptation to them, mutation and population which has reached six- from occurring. If, to take a hypothetical
natural selection – these alone determine and-a-half billion and is increasing by example, we were to drastically reduce
the coming and going of species. And two hundred thousand every day; the our burning of fossil fuels tomorrow,
since the laws that govern the operations majority of humans live in abject poverty the earth’s atmosphere might have a
of energy and mass guarantee constant now while a few acquire fairy-tale wealth, chance to recover and global warming
changes in the environment, it is a and the gulf between them continues would slow down, even come to a
foregone conclusion that they will to grow; the supply of oil necessary to stop. This might preserve us from some
eventually create conditions that will meet vital energy needs has peaked of the disasters now approaching so
replace human with some other animal and will soon dry up along with many alarmingly. In other words, we need not
kind. It is only a question of time. other resources of the earth we have continue marching into self-destruction.
So, ironically, at the same time plundered to the point of exhaustion. We have, theoretically,
Nietzsche declared the Christian idea This (partial) catalogue of the necessary level of
of God dead, Darwin’s work implied catastrophic developments is not the awareness and the freedom
the death of the Christian-Humanist product of the raving mind of some of action to change course
idea of Man. His discoveries allowed pessimistic misanthrope. It is, quite for a more sustainable
for no teleological interpretations of the on the contrary, based on research and future. To effect that
evolution of life. Instead, they proved reason, and lists the consequences of a change requires a second
that nothing necessitated the emergence heedless self-centred mega-optimism, an humanist revolution.
of humanity and nothing would prevent unprecedented human hubris. Almost Just as the first humanist revolution
its demise. With this blow to the human daily, new studies are added to the removed God from the centre of the
ego, an atmosphere of doom descended growing literature bearing witness to world and replaced him with Man, so
upon central Europe at the end of the the rapid and frightening degradation we must now remove Man and replace
19th century. The anti-hero was born, of our environment. For those who him with Life itself. We must now apply
and the two wars that devastated the understand the implications, they add the very perspective the Renaissance
20th century can be seen as a form of up to nothing less than the apocalypse. humanists recovered for the history
existential revolt, a desperate attempt And time is running out. If we are to of humankind to the history of life.
to prove that the most powerful are be spared a terrible final curtain to the What emerges is an intricate web that