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Contrary to what we are all brought up to believe and take for granted, it is not poverty or the poor which are the world's biggest problem - but the RICH and their (our) excessive wealth, in the blind and obsessive pursuit of which we are quite literally plundering our planet - but refusing to face up to.
Man has lived with poverty for thousands of years, but the excessive material wealth of ever increasing numbers of people now threatens to destroy us.
It is not just that the wealthy generally place a far greater per capita drain and strain on Earth's limited resources and finite carrying capacity than others, but the fact that they (with their materialistic values, attitudes and aspirations) function as role models and trendsetters, whose utterly unsustainable lifestyles, communicated and encouraged by the media (and a growth-dependent economy), billions (that's 1000's of millions!) of others are striving to emulate. WE are the PROBLEM. We can solve it, but first we must come out of denial and face up to it. Or we can carry on the way we are and leave nature to solve it for us. However, nature's solution will involve a drastic reduction in the human population, possibly even our complete elimination from the planet. I may be a crackpot, of course, having such views (in case that's what you are thinking), but I do not believe so. Neither to I believe that we have much time to effect a solution. For many it may already be too late. The "Make Poverty History" campaign is based on the assumption that we can carry on plundering our planet indefinitely. It may help to achieve a small, short-term reduction in poverty, but certainly no more. In the longer-term it is a dangerous illusion and a distraction from the real problem: the non-sustainability, and thus temporary nature, of the levels of wealth (i.e. the way we've achieved them) in rich countries. As we deplete ever more of Earth's natural resources and cause increasing damage or disruption to the intricate web of life-supporting natural systems (including climate), the curve of global wealth creation, after centuries of uninterrupted growth, will soon begin to flatten out, before dipping downwards, first gradually and then ever more precipitously. This is very hard to grasp, because we have no experience of it, and because of the difficulty we all have in believing that those in power and authority, including many of the world's greatest minds, can be so blind and stupid as to lead us to our own destruction: surely, Homo sapiens (L. wise man) is incapable of such madness?! Unfortunately, when the Swedish biologist, Carl Linnaeus, gave us this name in the 18th Century, he had no idea of how blind we are to the "insanities of normality ". Had he done, he might have called us Homo stupidus ; then perhaps we would find it easier to comprehend. We ARE depleting, damaging and destroying the very basis of our own existence - despite all our cleverness and achievements. Those in power and authority are leading us not towards a bright and prosperous future, but towards catastrophe. Being in the positions they are (at the top of the socio-economic hierarchy) makes them more responsible than most for the mess we are in; it also makes it more difficult for them to recognise and admit. Some would rather be the ones in charge, leading us to our doom, than step aside for someone who might lead us away from it. Not because they are evil, but because they too are blind and driven by forces that they do not understand. Many parents would be prepared to lay down their own lives for the sake of their children today, yet very few are prepared to lay down even the keys of their gas-guzzling car for the sake of their children in 30 years time (when their children will perhaps be the same age that they are now). We are probably the only animal capable of consciously contemplating and planning for the future, yet our main concerns are largely restricted to the present and immediate future. For most people, the behavioural programming that makes them love and care for their children now, tails off as they look 10, 20 years or more ahead. Strangely, I do seem to care, particularly for my own people. Perhaps that is because I have no children of my own.
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