Brain vs. body

A few days ago, another of my colleagues complained about the many ways the world is changing for the worse. He has been campaigning for some time now against the loss of a strip of beach near his place of birth in Asturias, and was quite upset because it seems this battle, like so many other battles to preserve our natural or cultural heritage, is lost. As he talked, I got the impression that he felt he - like many campaigners - was only one of few who cared. I think however that many people care, and might even just as feel as strongly about these issues, but have accepted them as a fact of life. 

I also care about these issues, but I tend to look at the big picture. I see all these changes as the inevitable result of our own success as a species (measured in terms of population). Virtually everything we complain or worry about - loss of natural habitats, pollution, climate change, extinctions, etc. etc. - can be blamed on the fact that there are so many humans. To paraphrase Agent Smith in Matrix: like some viruses, we are reproducing so quickly that that we risk killing off our host. 

The problem is twofold: on one side, reproduction is hard-coded in our programming. It is so much a part of us (and of any living organism), that it could easily be called the meaning of life. On the other side, we are also quite good at manipulating our environment so as to accommodate more humans, which reduces the need for us to do anything about the main cause of our problems (overpopulation), thereby in fact only making things worse. 

This is analogous to the problem of traffic congestion. For many years, it was claimed that we could rid ourselves of traffic jams if only we had more and wider roads. What in fact happened was that the amount of traffic increased, filling up all the new wider roads until the traffic congestion was the same (or worse) because the improved throughflow made it possible for people to move further away from their place of work.  

But knowing what the problem is and doing something about it is something else entirely. Most people (myself included) have very little intention of putting their money where their .... is. 

Which reminds me of an old joke of a Protestant preacher who in his sermon lectured on that little piece of flesh that was at the root of all of mankind's problems. This to the discomfort of most of his congregation. And it got worse when he suggested he tell them what that piece of flesh was called. And much worse - blushes and grumbles all around - when he asked them "Shall I show that piece of flesh to you?!?" Upon which he stuck out his tongue.