THE SOURCE OF ALL OUR PROBLEMS

Last night I stumbled across an excerpted portion of a speech by E.O. Wilson, the famous biologist, while I was reading a recent issue of Science News.

In the speech, Wilson draws a distinction between the "physical environment" (e.g. our atmosphere) and the "living environment" (e.g. the animals), while pointing out that recent attention to conservation and energy issues has focused almost exclusively on the former, while neglecting the latter. I'm not sure I buy this artificial distinction between the two environments, but I can also tell you that I'd never start an argument with E.O. Wilson.

What was most memorable about his speech, however, was the following commentary:

The 21st century, I believe, is going to be noted as the century of the environment. The immediate future can be usefully conceived as a bottleneck, of still-rapid population growth and high per capita investment and consumption. Science and technology, combined with a lack of self-understanding and the Paleolithic obstinacy that led to our ruinous environmental practices, have brought us to where we are today.… You can remember it best by thinking of us as being a Star Wars civilization: We have Stone Age emotions, medieval institutions and God-like technology. That’s the source of all of our problems.

Brilliant! We are a Star Wars civilization, whose infantile emotions combined with old world rules and superman powers makes us truly destructive. Well put, Wilson.