Future Frights

What does the future hold for us and the Earth as a functioning system ? One can be optimistic or pessimistic. In fact there are two forms of pessimism: the glass half empty kind and the sort where there is no water in the glass at all.

I find myself sometimes feeling uneasy about what might come. At other times I am glad to live in a country such as this which usually does nothing extremely dangerous or life-threatening and appears mild-mannered at all times, and will sustain us for ever, more or less without fail. It is not however being so mild mannered at the moment, reminding us that water in the form of rain is not something to be taken for granted.

What frights might befall us ? Rationing of energy and other resources (food, water and everything else) and the corresponding reduction of personal liberties. After all if you can't have fuel or energy your movements will be limited physically. But they will also be limited by governments who will have the task of keeping large populations fed and watered without a total breakdown. There may well be possible restrictions on reproduction. A war footing will be the norm. Will it be sustainable ? Possibly in temperate countries such as this which escape the worst of climate change and manage to limit their populations. Elsewhere, who knows ?  Needless to say the elites will be even more elite, having access to all the energy and other resources they require. Perhaps all government will be privatised and only accessible to those with the required financial resources. The rest may be sustained, but no more.

The Earth and the humans who inhabit it are resilient, though. Remember when rivers like the Thames or the Rhine were dead, used as open sewers ? The scene is very different today. I would not want to do much bathing in the Rhine or even the Thames, but fish and other form of life now thrive there because we have realised collectively that we have poisoned these water courses and take action to reverse this. Nature has done the rest, without hesitation. We should really be thankful for the irrepressibility of life.