Exhibition style essay 2nd draft

It is too late to save the ecosphere from total destruction caused by the globalization of Human civilization. Thanks to the massively destructive juggernaut of civilization, some truly alarming disturbances among the Plant and Animal kingdom are taking place. These disturbances may be difficult for the average person to see on a day to day basis. This is especially true of those living in an urban environment, although there are blatant examples of civilization’s destructive impact on the ecosphere seen virtually everywhere. Civilization has gotten away with its ecocidal killing spree for so long that now there is little, if nothing, that can be done in aid of this mangled planet.
Almost all Humans in society today don’t realize the magnitude of the “footprint” they are leaving behind. As Bob Holmes puts it in “Imagine Earth without People”:

“We are leaving quite a mess behind, ploughed up-Prairies, razed Forests, drained Aquifers, Nuclear waste, chemical pollution…mass extinctions and now the looming spectre of climate change”(1)


These ecological issues are only a few within the cornucopia of Human race induced problems.
The collapse of the world’s oceans and its Flora and Fauna are thanks to people and their massive over-fishing to support the “needs” of an exponentially growing population. The current condition of the oceans can be explained by an idea called “the tragedy of the commons”. Author of A Scientist Audits the Earth, Stuart L. Pimm explains this idea.

“You choose to graze an extra cow on your village’s common; you get the reward for the milk or meat, damage to the common’s pasture is shared by everyone. This is a deal you cannot refuse. The same principles go for the ocean…as long as there are few fishers.”(169)


Countries use “neutral” zones in the world’s oceans to do their heavy fishing with tremendous environmental tolls.
Very little of the planet’s Rainforest still exists today; instead it has been replaced by countless acres of grazing land for livestock. In the article “Rethinking the Global Meat Industry” the author explains that: “In the 1980’s environmentalists in industrial countries blamed McDonalds and other fast-food chains for buying beef raised in what was once lush rainforest in Central and South America.”(37) This quote illustrates the reality that in retrospect all Humans in an industrial society contribute to the downfall of the ecosphere in one way or another. Adding to the destruction can be as simple as eating livestock raised on cleared forests. Whether aware of it or not, every Human has a part in this tragic state of affairs.
The award-winning documentary “The Corporation” outlines major “sociopathic” environmental crimes committed by corporations around the world. In this documentary the “Airplane analogy” is given. It can be summed up as comparing civilization to pioneers in the early days of flight, flapping enormous winged crafts, which were not built according to the earth’s laws of physics and gravity. This is like the less than ecosphere-friendly or symbiotic way in which an overwhelming majority of Humans live their lives. People, like those early pilots, mistake falling for flying or sustaining. Society has been tricked into believing they are continuously airborne, when in reality they are dropping, and fast. Unfortunately, too few have looked down and seen how close to the bottom we really are. Civilization has been too destructive (or falling) for too long and no hope lies in changing and rebuilding now.
A “Machine” analogy is widely used to understand the inescapable wrath of Civilization. Prieur says in Thinking through the Fall:

“This Civilization is incapable of stopping or even slowing down what it does. Like any system based on concentration of “wealth,” it is a machine whose only behavior is to keep taking more and more until it runs out of “resources” and implodes”(1)


There are skeptics out there that argue alternative fuel could lead the world into sustainability. They argue that alternative fuels like Nuclear, Solar, Hydrogen, and Coal will be enough to sustain civilization. Unfortunately this is nothing but a “cruel hoax” says James Howard Kuntsler in The Long Emergency:

“No combination of alternative fuels will allow us to run American life the way we have been used to running it, or even a substantial fraction of it.”(179)

In this particular quote the author discusses The United States. This is only because peak oil and the American way of life is the source’s main focus. Ultimately, the only critics of the “peak oil” theory are those who will suffer financially from it, chiefly; OPEC. The others are those ignorant of the facts whether by choice or not.
Noam Chomsky in Chomsky on Peak Oil on EnergyBulletin.net brings up the idea that trying to prolong the inevitable “peak” in oil is probably more destructive in the long run. Chomsky addresses:

Another side to this, there’s a sense in which it’s advantageous if the oil peak is earlier. The reason why is it will compel the world…to move toward something like sustainable energy…we’re just going to destroy the environment for human life of most biological life, so the earlier the peak is in some respects…it could be beneficial"(1)

This is a complex and controversial point of view, mainly because it is not something the average person wants to hear; civilization has passed the point of no return. The longer this civilization continues is not only harming the Human habitat, but more importantly annihilating the habitats of countless vital species and bacteria that also call planet Earth home. Perhaps, Chomsky, along with countless other intellectuals, have been right all along: How can the industrial juggernaut be stopped? Run out of fossil fuel early, it could be more advantageous than trying to support a blatantly fictitious system of sustainability, promised by so many in order to support there own insatiable thirst for wealth.