… who lack basic essentials such as water, food, shelter, friends – and empathy.
Especially that last.
(Human) population is a serious problem; mainly because it’s crowding out the other residents of ‘our’ planet. The more serious issue, though, is overconsumption – and of course I mean by humans, and mostly by a small fraction of the total (now approaching eight billion). The other beings with whom we ‘share’ our world tend not to do that to the same extent; when they do transgress, they pay the price. We, even with our (allegedly) greater smarts, are not immune to the consequences of our actions.
We’ve been in overshoot since the early nineteen-seventies. If that is not corrected, and soon, we’ll live to regret it. But, in all likelihood, probably not for long.
If you have an hour and a quarter to spare, please watch the documentary ‘Breaking Boundaries‘, the trailer for which is below. Sadly, it’s only available on Netflix; in my opinion it should be on every channel across the world – and played at prime time every night until everyone gets the message.
Professor Johan Rockström: The science is clear, and has been communicated for the past 30 years; but still we’re not moving in the right direction. I don’t get depressed, I get angry. What are the systems that determine the state of the planet? This is about us. It is about our future.
Sir David Attenborough: All is not well with our planet. As we increase our pressures on Earth, we are now crossing irreversible tipping points.
Dr Anne Larigauderie: Nature is being degraded at a rate and a scale that is unprecedented.
Professor Terry Hughes: When we emit CO2, about a third has ended up in the ocean.
Dr Daniella Teixeira: There’s no sign of any wildlife at all.
Professor Veerabhadran Ramanathan: Based on the seven and a half million deaths, we have already crossed the boundary as far as aerosols are concerned.
Professor Terry Hughes: As we manipulate the planet’s climate, we’re literally playing with fire.
Professor Carlos Nobre: Are we concerned about fighting the climate crisis? The window is still open for us to have a future for humanity. We still have a chance.
Professor Johan Rockström: What we do between 2020 and 2030, it will be the decisive decade for humanity’s future on Earth.
Dr María Neira: Human health, animal health and environmental health – the three are so much linked.
Professor Johan Rockström: We’ve covered the whole planet with knowledge. The future’s not determined. The future is in our hands.
Sir David Attenborough: It’s a remarkable time to be alive. You may never look at the world in the same way again.
The transcript above was made with the help of Sonix, which did most of the donkey work for a tiny fee (I did have to spend some time tidying it up). Note that I do not have the copyright owner’s permission to publish this transcript here. I’ve investigated the copyright rules regarding transcriptions (more about that here), and one thing I’ve learned is that it’s no defense to make a disclaimer like “these aren’t my words, no copyright infringement intended.” However, I offer the transcription here as a service to society (especially the deaf community). I do hope the copyright owner won’t object. And I hope that you find this video as entertaining and/or interesting as I did.
In a time of crises, proper choice of priorities is crucial. Perspective is all-important.
And now, a return to the ‘far more important’ matters that dominate the *cough* news *cough*.
The Queen is dead.
All hail King Charles III.
God save the king!
:\
Wibble 
yes us humans ! what are we doing.
The Queen, The King – It still hasnt sunk in!
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What are we doing?
Fiddling while Rome burns.
Rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic.
Sleepwalking towards the edge of the cliff.
The Queen/ King thing isn’t what needs to sink in. The nefarious Bishops, Knights and Rooks pulling the strings of the mass media use such relative irrelevancies to deliberately distract us – the Pawns in this duplicitous game.
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😄
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It’s exhausting living from crisis to crisis. Mass media manufacture crises to sell product; that we know. What we need is a widespread scientific periodical that tells things in a simple matter and comments on the world at large. Something simple, basic. But unbiased. I still have trust in scientists; my media faith is zero.
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I don’t disagree; but it’s impossible to eliminate bias entirely. Even scientists are biased (against using hyperbole, and towards conservative estimates); and the scientific method is, arguably, itself biased as the peer review process tends to exclude negative research results.
We desperately need to minimise political bias in mass media. It’s unconscionable, for instance, that the publicly funded BBC is so thoroughly controlled by Conservative interests (and the irony there is that I’ve no doubt that they’re quite happy with the BBC’s tarnished reputation – because that increases calls for Aunty Beeb to be privatised!)
In the meantime, I think that the best we can do is seek alternative viewpoints (such as DDN) – and use search engines that don’t track you (such as DuckDuckGo).
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I think regarding your transcription, since you’re using it as an advertisement for their movie, it really should be OK.
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I’m pretty sure you’re not wrong. I’ve got into the habit of using that disclaimer on all the transcripts I publish here on Wibble. Arguably I should have omitted it here, as it distracts from the point I’m trying to make. Not that that matters much given the puny‡ size of Wibble’s audience ;)
‡ … although quality transcends† quantity, in my book :)
† Had to seek out a synonym, as my go-to word has elicited distasteful thoughts since 2016….
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Excellent opening, with your list of basic essentials lacking on Spaceship Earth, including especially empathy….not to mention a lack of action flowing from empathy when there is empathy.
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Thank you. And your point is excellent!
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I agree. The carrying capacity of the planet is almost certainly under 2 billion homo stupidens. And the true measure is consumption multiplied by number.
If we all switched to a technologically simpler lifestyle, in which every decision is examined for its long term consequences, and food factories transformed into regenerative agriculture, the global ecosystem may have a chance.
However, that would be TERRIBLE for profits!
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Jack Alpert believes that even two billion is unsustainable. His calculations suggest 600 million, and given that there were just a billion ‘homo stupidens’ (I like that) for millennia prior to the Industrial Revolution and considering how much we’ve degraded and polluted Spaceship Earth, I have no trouble believing it’s likely our numbers would end up being fewer.
Your recipe is a good one. (I’m doing my tiny bit.) The profit motive is insanely suicidal. We must pursue degrowth – though, of course, since we’ve all been indoctrinated in the ‘benefits of progress’, the very word ‘degrowth’ has a negative connotation, making its achievement even more tricky :/
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You took the words right out of my mouth, sir. It gives me real hope that others are out there who feel the same.
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Though ‘woke’ has been misappropriated as a slur‡, it’s my impression that people are finally waking up to reality.
Thanks for your visit, Tiffany. And welcome to Wibble!
‡ … and ‘degrowth’ was recently relabelled ‘anti-growth’ by our latest Honourable [sic] UK Pri’Minister.
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Yes, slowly but surely. We just gotta make sure no one pulls the covers back over their head once the window curtain is pulled open.
Thanks for the warm welcome, I appreciate that.
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Empathy… Definitely an issue. We’re in the era of ‘make sure you feel good and don’t pay attention to others unless you have some time and are willing to get bogged down.’
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Indeed. Made all the more difficult by our ‘more, More, MORE!’ selfish consumerist greed culture.
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