Anyone else losing faith in mankind?

Question

With all the news about global warming and it now being public knowlege that the polar ice caps are crucial to the well being of our planet, it boggles my brain to see on the news that countries are racing to see who can be the first to exploit the melting of the ice to establish a new shipping route through the arctic!
I just don't understand it, aren't we supposed to be preserving this important habitat rather than adding to it's distruction?

Surely the best thing would be to leave the place alone rather than adding to the pollution by taking ships and tankers through it?

This is just my laymans opinion, if anyone can explain how this makes sense i would appreciate it because I'm starting to think that the human race is greedy beyond sense.

It seems as if we are hell bent on our own destruction!

Answer 1

capitalists cant see past the pound signs in their eyes, they see an opportunity to make money then pounce on it, not thinking of the consequences,once they`ve made their money they move on to the next project sucking our planet dry.

Answer 2

No, I'm not losing faith in mankind. Sure, there will always be a lot of people trying to benefit as much as possible for their own purposes regardless of the consequenses, but I can also see so much positive activities going on around the world these days.

Just one little example: In Sweden where I live the demand for ecological milk has increased tremendeosly and despite the fact that ecological milk is slightly more costly people are prepared to buy it just to make "the right thing". To fill the demand more farmers are starting to use ecological methods in their farming.

We are becoming aware that we are living beyond the resources of this planet and tries to take steps in the right direction to make things better. Being green is not weird anymore but starting to become the norm for most people in Sweden.

Answer 3

It makes perfect sense. Surviving is not a sin and thriving is not greed. I get so tired of people who blame all the world's problems on people. Other people of course, never themselves. You sit in your nice house with electricity to run your computer and refrigeration to preserve your food and hate the people who do the dirty hard work that gives you all that. You have no idea at all how good you have it and how bad it was before we invented all this technology. You just assume that people always had life as easy as we do today and that all technology has done is mess up the world. Most history books just give dates and major events and sanitize or gloss over the horrors that were everywhere. People dying like files of all kinds of diseases and accidents and even pollution so that even though the birth rate was WAY higher than today the population was not growing much at all.

Answer 4

As Avondrow says, The human race isn't advanced socialy as the Church, and others pandering to our egos, make us out to be. 'We are cavemen lining in the space age'.

I lost faith in Mankind as a whole a while ago, I still hold faith in individuals, and thier ability to adapt, survive and generally do the right thing, but it's a dog eat dog world at the moment. Perhaps the population will slim a bit, and there will be more choices for more of us regarding succesful survival strategies. We, or future generations, may see a better side to humanity.

I quietly work towards that possibility with permaculture.

Answer 5

No. I lost faith in mankind some time previous at the same time as i began a particular something noted as "historic previous classes". nonetheless, we may be able to attempt to discover the strong aspect of human beings. One nutcase and pups does no longer communicate for the human race. One racist, genocidal dictator does no longer communicate for all Germans for the era of historic previous. One crew of overzealous terrorists does no longer communicate for an finished faith. See? that is confusing, yet by technique of recognizing the shortcoming of humanity, we may be able to attempt to be more suitable ideal than those who've lost their ability to love and grow to be monsters. Hell, suggested monsters do not imagine themselves evil!

Answer 6

Lost it a long time ago, I'd just like to say one thing, if we weren't so busy acting like brain dead morons all the time and doing things essentially the same way we did them 5000 years ago,
imagine what we could accomplish together, if we've accomplished all we have while wasting so much time, effort,
and material doing things the way we do them now.

Answer 7

We just aren't adapted to think in terms of the big picture. We are social primates, still functioning emotionally at the tribal hunter/gatherer level. It takes quite an effort to function beyond the 'what's in it for me, my family and friends?' level! Short term and local, that's us!
People tend not to make the connection between things happening globally and their own immediate lives. Someone can shake their head in sympathy at images of polar bears on melting ice sheets, then jump in their 4x4 to go and book their next holiday abroad! And of course this transfers to politics. In a democracy like ours, politicians tend not to think past the next election!

Answer 8

Exploitation of the planet is mostly down to corporations/nationalities.
indeed the industrial growth society they promote/embody as part of their identity & rules is fundamentally unsustainable.

Mankind without these legal entities tend to live more within the limits of the environment, eg the artic or rainforest tribes.

http://greatturningtimes.org

Answer 9

Bad news sells - why are you buying it? You sound exactly like the Jehovahs that visit every 4 weeks - I think the newbies are sent my way to test their faith.

Answer 10

You are dead right, just as I can't understand that we have to split out rubbish into 3 different bags for recycling but it now takes 3 different lorries each week to collect the items belching out 3 times as much diesel fumes.