La Nina is sticking around. But are people? And should we?
On January 5, the U.S. Climate Prediction Center (part of NOAA, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration) said that La Nina will last into spring way up here, in the northern hemisphere. That means they are thinking the crippling drought in the U.S. southwest and in South America will continue.
Whatever. Doesn’t seem like it will make any difference, because what really matters is what humans do.
Human stupidity, to be precise. Predicting La Nina is a no brainer. One thing they are not predicting, probably because it’s guaranteed, and therefore not subject to predictability, is people who can’t think.
Think about it.
We’ve been watching a drought in the U.S., especially in Texas, for several years. Lakes and rivers and streams and ponds are drying up. Crops withering. Cattle dying. Wastelands developing where no one, and nothing, can live. And no end in sight.
But damned if they don’t still water their lawns.
Maybe humans are just too stupid to live.
Maybe that’s why we invented government. Like the year we had a drought in Seattle. Nobody could water their lawns, and the water police made sure people didn’t water anything else except on a strict schedule. Lawns died. Watersheds survived. Somehow we all got along.
We conserved.
I visit the Alki Point Lighthouse a lot in the summer. People visiting Seattle stop in at the lighthouse on summer weekends. I happened to be there when the visitor from Texas stopped to remark on how cool it was, what a relief from the heat in Texas (yep, Texas has had its drought, Seattle has not had summer for two years).
“It costs me $150 a month to water my lawn,” the woman laughed.
Her body posture, her flippant tone, and I realized she was proud of herself for that. I was completely appalled.
She didn’t care about her community, about where water resources should go, like to grow food so we can all eat. Nope, she was going to water her lawn.
Lawns have no useful function, unless you’re into chemicals for artificial growth and you’re make money from allergies in people and animals, because lawns are what keeps those people in business.
Lawns have no place anywhere, especially in drought country. They are a choice, one that society has to make. Together.
Society is a choice. Do we have group choice that benefits all of us, or do we just have what individuals want?
If we as a society can’t smarten up enough to say, “Let your lawns die and use the water to grow food,” well, then, we’re too stupid to live.
Maybe we already are, if we’re bragging about wasting precious resources.
Or, maybe, I’m not the only one who can look at foolish choices and poor policy and speak up.
La Nina, well, weather comes and goes. It will continue.
Will we?
Better put: should we?
© 2012 Robyn M Fritz
Clearly, humans are too stupid to live. There are individuals that do not fit that summation, but as a whole humanity is one raging, unthinking mass of mindless morons whose only goal is to survive.
In poor countries, they keep popping out babies even though many are destined to starve to death. And if they are lucky enough to live in a 1st world country, they are no better. They want their trees and lawns watered, even in the deserts where it is truly truly stupid to do so. Take California for example: Palm Springs and surrounding area is a desert. Yet green lawns and big trees are everywhere, not to mention a dozen golf courses. This is mass stupidity.
The above is just one tiny example among a great many of them that demonstrate clearly and conclusively that humanity is too stupid to live. And it will kill itself off, or at least cause a major die off due to its stupidity. Maybe the people who survive the die off will develop a collective brain and consider its actions and their long term impact, but I wouldn’t bet on it. One day an asteroid big enough to wipe out everything except bacteria will hit the earth, and humanity, which could have and should have progressed beyond immediate goals and the temporal quest for money, power, resources and whatever else and instead have colonized space will die off.
Hi there and thanks for your comments. It is a puzzle, isn’t it, why we continue to thoughtlessly pursue our immediate needs without thinking of the overall picture. The ‘too stupid to live’ was meant as irony, but I do agree that we need to stop and think about what we are doing, and why. Government and religion and business teach us to consume, to dominate all life, and to make it comfortable via the templates they construct for us. Lawns being one of them. Lawns not only consume resources but are huge allergens.
We need to start people talking together in community. What do we need, what does it cost–financially, morally, ethically, and practically–and what do we want to do?
There are plenty of people who DO want to do the best they can in the world. They just don’t always know what that is. Let’s help them out via education.