h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Deep thoughts indeed. Loving this new column DG thanks.

Thanks!

I don't know that it's all human greed that is to blame.

It's partly our kindness, because doctors, scientists and engineers have worked hard to stop us getting ill and dying before our time. From laying decent sewers to looking for vaccines against COVID-19. Earth's population has grown and grown.

One weapon to use against unsustainable growth is contraception. Here in the west, we've tended to cut our family sizes, but it's harder in poorer countries. The approach that works best is empowering women.

>>I don't know that it's all human greed that is to blame.<<

I am unaware of having said that it was. The only time I mentioned the word 'greed' was in a hypothetical quote. (I checked.)

The TL;DR of this article was:

'What does it mean to 'be a good ancestor'? Among other things, it means that we need to separate what is of long-term importance from what is ephemeral.' I'll stand by that.

I gather from your post that you believe there are too many people in the world, and that there should be fewer of us. I'm sure that doesn't mean what, apparently, 57% of Republican voters (and 10% of Democratic voters!) told the pollsters today: that 176,000 deaths from Covid-19 in the US is acceptable. (I'm still reeling from that one.)

Or that it's a shame we have good sewers. Which the Milwaukee socialists of 1890 thought was a right, not a privilege. I agree with them.

Does 'empowering women' improve things? Depends on what you mean, I suspect, by 'empowering'. Giving all humans more choices over the things they should decide for themselves is a good idea, I think. Making sure all of us, around the world, have access to the power to make needed changes in our society, control our own environments, improve our economies, etc, is probably the most important thing we could do.

Would eliminating poverty do a lot? Yep. Remember: there's actually enough to go around, even though nobody in the West seems to believe that right now, so I'm not sold on First-World 'kindness' myself.

Do humans need to downsize? That's a good approach. Should we be reaching for the stars and expanding out there? That's another. Maybe it's not either/or. Maybe it's both/and?

That's not to suggest that we have instant answers. Or should think we have, and try to convince each other.

The important thing is to learn to think for the future - for a world we won't even live to see - rather than for ourselves alone. I'm thinking in terms of the ancient author who wrote, 'They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.'

And I believe Robbie Stamp agrees with me - the phrase 'be a good ancestor' came from him.

I planted two trees a while back, for a hammock to be strung between. Wife asks when they'll be strong enough, should be grown enough by the time our great grandkids want to put one up. (The hammock's in our loft if you're reading this kids! Enjoy!)

What a idea!

Hoggetts are planning some farming projects. NT said he wanted to plant an apple orchard. They were both impressed by this future thinking in a 13-year-old, and trying to figure out how to protect the trees from the deer population without buying enough nine-foot fencing to shield a grove.

Well, I've been lobbying our Town Council to plant some more trees in a local nature reserve they own. I'm hoping to succeed in this in time to plant the trees in November.

Great! What kinds of trees?

I haven't seen the ecologist's report yet, but I think it will be a few oaks with hazels and hawthorns.

I believe oaks live a long time, don't they?

Hundreds of years. That would be a good legacy, I think.

It would, absolutely!

The reason I mentioned saving family farmland is that's what's being done here - it's important to preserve our area for future generations, and prevent fracking to keep the water table pure. This is a major watershed area.

Today, I travelled beside/crossed four rivers - the Allegheny, the Clarion, French Creek and Oil Creek - and one spring. This is, of course, the area where the first commercial oil well (at least in the US: they're still arguing with Azerbaijan, I think) was dug in 1859. The land has recovered from the boom - we also had a wild turkey fly in front of our car (fortunately not INTO the car, as has happened), and saw several deer with fawns. We had a beautiful day of it.

I've planted many trees. It's time to let others take a turn planting them.

Or, we just let Nature plant them as an where it will. But if we let Nature choose, we will end up with zillions of Ailanthus trees everywhere. It's illegal to bring new ones into Massachusetts as of 2009, but one adult tree can seed hundreds of offspring, and they grow fast. I seem to pull up new seedlings daily.

As I learned when I did my research for the "oldest tree in Crepuscular Meadows" spotlight, some surprising differences exist among our North American trees. Maples grow fast and thrive, but they're pretty much spent after 100 years. Oaks and Hemlocks can live five hundred years.

Actually I am reading a commentary on Jung at the moment and he said that our ancestors need us to find answers to problems they couldn't understand and that God needs us as we need him for the same reason.

Ah, but our ancestors won't know that we've found answers to problems.

No but our kids will

Someone's kids will, but I don't have any. I plan to bequeath what I have to other people's children. We are all distant cousins to one degree or another.