Short Term Thinking

For most of humanity’s time on earth, they had almost no effect on the environment. They could not even store food for winter. Short term thinking, the type required to get out the way of a sabre tooth tiger, was more than adequate. Then we mastered fire and how to level forests, dam streams, pollute the air, factor farm etc. Before we knew it, we had instituted a new geological age where human activity moved more earth than moved by natural processes. Our activities drastically changed the composition of the atmosphere. Short term thinking no longer sufficed. Unfortunately, humans have not yet evolved the ability to do long term thinking. Either we, or our machines, do, or we perish from too much power to destroy our planet. Humanity is Mickey Mouse in the Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

~ Roedy (1948-02-04 age:70)