The ability to solve problems now, the inability to see the consequences of our actions

A weird thought cam up when I wasn’t really paying much attention to my thoughts. But this thought made me travel inwards; it was a small thought at first, but it grew the more energy and time I spend on it. We excel at solving problem now, when we see that something is wrong we are able to act accordingly and as a group, country or race unite against a common problem or enemy. If this is true (which it is, just look around) how come we are unable to see that we are the cause of many of these problems, we are unable to really see the consequences of our action. I think that it is because the consequences of our action only become visible trough time, more time then we want to look ahead. As long as the consequences don’t threat our way of life and existence, why should we do anything about it? So we continue are way of life, because we like living like this and don’t want to change that. But when we reach the point that the consequences of our previous actions threaten our way of life, we become the world’s greatest problem solvers. Which of course would have been unnecessary, or the problem would have been smaller if we would have acted when the problem was still small.

We are all like smokers: we know our way of life (smoking) is deadly to use and those around us, but not right now. Because we like it and are addicted to it. We started it and keep doing it because everybody (a lot) is (are) doing it. We know how bad it is, but because the effect will be noticeable so long after we started it and might not even notice it because we will be die before its noticeable, we have no reason to worry about it now.

Nobody would smoke if long cancer directly followed everybody’s first cigarette. This of course goes for more then just smoking.

From led to gold, from order to chaos

We consider this world our reality, real and solid. But we continue to try and change and reshape that reality. We are now coming to the point that we are able to manipulate the building blocks – atoms – of our reality. But what would happen if we could manipulate and reconstruct matter? Wouldn’t our reality no longer be fixed and solid but what ever we wanted it to be? We would be able to change led to gold. This means that our entire economic system would crumble because we could make diamonds from carbon, and refuel our cars and power plants without having to drill for oil. The entire foundation of our sophisticated society would crumble, because our rules for this reality no longer apply and are no longer relevant. What does this tell us? That our reality is not a reality at all and that the rules we use for this reality are only are primitive brains trying to cope with the chaos and trying to make sense of something we will never be able to fully understand. Like trying to make sense of the endless possibilities in the grocery store, organized so we can understand it, but if it’s reorganized we get totally confused, let alone if totally different products replace the old ones or it’s costs are changed drastically. All shoppers would lose their mind, just because what the see doesn’t resemble what they are used too.

There is no order, only the order our brain imagines there to be.

Global Warming

Global warming
This is a summary of global warming and its effects, in plain readable term. Some question who or what is responsible for global warming; if it is our fault or just a natural phenomenon that has happened before and is now happening again. Even if it isn’t our fault the temperature is still rising. I has already risen 0,74 C from 1900 - 1950 (in the Netherlands). After 1950 temperature has risen twice as fast. Estimates say that before 2100 the temperature will be 1,1 C tot 6,4 C higher. The great difference between these numbers is due to the difficulty to predict it and because it depends on if we as humans are going to do anything about it or not.

We can’t reverse this global warming, but we can, slowly, bring it to a halt. We have to, because if we let the temperature rise above 2,0 C the effects will be disastrous:
- Due to the warming of the planet the pole caps are melting and the water level will rise. The ice surface that normally reflects a lot of the sunrays shrinks, which only contributes to the global warming
- The permafrost (land ice) is melting. No only are inhabited northern (like the coast of Alaska) parts of the world slowly falling in the ocean, the water level is rising further. But that’s not all the CO2 in the permafrost is released, which also contributes to the global warming.
- The Deserts will grow larger and become inhabitable
- Animal species will be extinguished
- Increase of extreme weather conditions (hurricanes, tornados, etc)
- Spreading of diseases
- Decrease of drinkable water in many parts of the world
- Shrinking of the ozone layer
If we want to prevent this, or stop the things that are already happening from getting worse, we have to decrease our CO2 output to 15% of the current output before 2050.

If you want the to see the numbers, facts and research for yourself I suggest you visit http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/

Why am I telling you this? Because I want you to be aware of it. What you do with it is entirely up to you.