A Cyclist’s Life in Tenerife (Canary Islands)

It is a characteristic of human behaviour that as a whole that we are inherently very stupid. Perhaps ignorance is a better term. For one thing, we fail to learn by other people’s mistakes. Looking back at former civilisations, it is always noteworthy how blatantly ignorant humanity was about the consequences of its own actions. Even knowing what we know now about the past, we always seem to over-estimate our current intelligence level. And we claim to live in the age of information!

We make many assumptions and then try to predict the future. I’m ironically prediciting that based on this trend, pretty soon, we’ll realise that our current civilisation is terribly arrogant. Within a short timespan current attitudes are going to change, as they always do - we don’t ever live in one age or another, but we live in a dynamic time where things inherently change. Only the rate of change and its direction differs.

Today for example, we think we can solve any problems that come our way, that nothing is too great for us to overcome. For example, during a time when greenhouse gas emissions are ever-increasing, we are still urbanising natural spaces at a horrendous rate. We are effectively destroying our free-growing, self-spawning air recyclers. What could be more stupid to know about something and stubbornly refuse to act on it? Do we really think that science will one day provide a more impressive & economical method of CO₂ -> O₂ conversion than the humble tree? What could possibly be more senseless than that? Is it just laziness, or is the reluctance to change more deep-rooted?

In this respect, our societies are suprisingly rather ignorant. Our species stands in the most dominant position on Earth. Yet as we pat ourselves on the back for our cleverness of invention, we mostly destroy everything natural around us and seek a synthetic alternative. Although inevitably, in some way or another, the multiple consequences of our actions usually bite back with a vengeance.

The sad fact is, our current circumstances are due to our way of life (which we choose). It seems to me that the consumerism & novel modes of entertainment we have devised are merely a way to distract ourselves from all the doom and gloom. We have almost adapted to today’s world, immune to this concrete jungle. I for one have never been too proud of what we have achieved here. I wonder, when, if ever, are we going to change?

For example, when are people going to not take their energy consumption for granted? (Pedalling on an exercise bike, most people would be lucky to average a continuous power output of a mere 250 Watts!) When are people going to stop blaming Australian cow farts for the global warming phenomenon, and look towards their own vehicles as a source of the problem? When are we going to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle? When will we stop fooling ourselves about the state of the Earth’s future? When can we stop pretending to be so incredibly naïve?

Tags: Vida Enigmática //