鈥榃hat have you done? 鈥榃hat were you thinking?鈥� is the lament the writer of a recent 撸奶社区 letter [Climate change articles spark shocking comments, published Feb. 1], which imagines his children and grandchildren to hurl at him and older generations for having, as he says, left them our planet in a terrible state.
If the 鈥榮tate of the planet鈥� is viewed strictly through the prism of unprecedented human population growth and urbanization, the massive terraforming through agricultural and industrial development and the related processes coming along with them, who could deny the existence of serious challenges to our biosphere?
Nevertheless, as an octogenarian, I take issue with the selective finger-pointing and despair displayed in that letter.
That same techno-industrial society, which made it possible for the planet鈥檚 human population to almost quadruple within a human lifespan, also made it possible to shower us with comfort and, yes, wealth, unimaginable to most of our forebears.
While extreme poverty and hunger are unfortunately still a fact in many parts of the world, even they have decreased according to the bodies tracking such matters, and despite the significant population growth. Paul Ehrlich鈥檚 doomsday book 鈥�The Population Bomb鈥� of 1968 did not 鈥榚xplode鈥� as Ehrlich anticipated but instead met Norman Borlaug鈥檚 鈥楪reen Revolution鈥�. Technology bested Malthus.
In addition, we humans successfully met other global and local challenges before: DDT, the depleting ozone layer, acid rain, and, in rich developed countries, the massive air and water pollution once associated with most urban and semi-urban regions. I believe we should be able to meet the challenges presented by climate change in the same way: Technology got us into this conundrum and technology too will be the solution to escape it.
The plaintive lament mentioned at the beginning of my letter also suggests victimhood and helplessness, which should be unworthy of the 鈥榙igital generation鈥�, the one with vast stores of research and information at their fingertips, something entirely 鈥榮cience-fiction鈥� even as recently as the 1960s.
Shouldn't we have confidence that they will build their own world, standing on the shoulders of all those before them, the ones who grew up or lived before plastic, fast food-and-take-outs, cell phones, household 鈥榗onveniences鈥�, synthetic garments and footwear, disposable diapers, baby formula, the internet and whatever else one could add to that list?
The generations with different priorities, those whose primary focus, as still is for so many in the world today, was to better the quality of life for their family.
Wolfgang Wittenburg
Squamish
