too successful

Our main problem isn't pollution, global warming, or resource depletion. Our main problem is that we are too successful. Some would say it is a good problem to have. But it is a problem nonetheless. There are too many humans on the planet and too many are added each and every day. These humans also live too long and use way too many resources during their stay. We are becoming fat and rowdy guests who are raiding the fridge and the pantry and leaving our garbage piled up in the living room. It seems we have overstayed our welcome.

There are things we could do to improve the situation. These things may not totally solve our long term problems, but they could surely buy us a lot of extra time. And they might even keep our impact below a critical level so it remains sustainable for a while to come. We could consume less and leave less trash around. We could be friendlier to the other inhabitants, and we could reduce our numbers. But all that takes long term management and international scope and both of these have eluded us consistently. For all our bragging about superior intelligence, experience shows that human behavior is driven by instincts as basic and as generic as those of any other species around.

Humans don't like words like instinct applied to them. Because instinct evokes images of automatic and non-intelligent behavior. Behavior that persists even when it is obviously harmful and will lead to premature death. But that is exactly the type of behavior we display each and every day. Since we are in the midst of it, it is not easy to see. But it does become apparent when we observe others. Unfortunately, we are not different, even though we'd like to think so. It is quite easy for humans to sit around and debate matters intelligently. Solve the big problems in the world. But as soon as those same people walk out the door, and into their eight cylinder, 5,000 pound SUV, you can see where the rubber hits the road.

Intelligence is easily suspended in our everyday lives. It helps us to solve problems when we get lost, or when we need to build shelter. But before such projects get of the ground, they are already cluttered up with tons of unnecessary garbage that serves no purpose other than to impress the neighbors, show status, flatter our egos, and lure mates.

Such behaviors are good and fine when there are two or three billion people on the planet. But if six billion try to do the same, things get problematic. And the truth is that those six are all outdoing the former three. It is a double whammy. And soon we will have nine billion, who will all try to outdo us. Obviously this cannot go on forever. The trouble is that rather than stopping it now and doing something smart, most would prefer to escalate even further and then crash headlong into the wall.

Every time we have a savings and loan crisis, a stock market bubble, a subprime problem, etc. you can see this scenario repeated. Each and every time people can clearly see where it is headed. But each and every time it ends the same way: with a hard crash. Nobody ever steps in to stop it. And the participants are all too happy to drive of the cliff at 100 mph. So much for intelligence.