May 24, 2008

Query

-- What then is to be done?

-- Focus on life, not money coordinates,

On the conditions for the nurturance of life,

Not the conditions for the accumulation of money.

-- That would just mean more mouths to feed,

An even larger load of sad, malnourished, uneducated children.

-- No, not life at any cost,

Life with quality in the experience of living.

-- Already now, the planet cannot meet the demands of humans.

Not only would humanity’s expansion have to be curbed,

But its present size would have to be reduced by at least third.

Which one of us will forego his descendants?

-- First, only wanted children,

And then the imposition of one standard for all.

-- For all on the planet?

-- Of course, until demand and resource consumption are in balance.

The process has already begun. We blame “nature” but that is fraudulent.

It is us who now kill millions yearly through neglect, encroachment* and pollution.

It would be more humane, I think, to do it by preventing births,

But that is a decision humans must make democratically,

In the knowledge that inaction is itself a decision.

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* Encroachment includes:

1. Wars, such as Grenada, Panama, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq (1991 and 2003),

2. The displacement of people from their land by the expansion of deserts, and by large projects, such as dams and industrial agriculture.

3. The extinction of wild seed varieties by genetically-modified ones,

4. The replacement of tropical forests and diverse farming by monocultures,

5. The forced evacuation of small islands due to rising sea levels.