Utterly Dismal Theory

Today in Boone was hot and muggy -- I know for those of you who live where it is really hot out 82 ºF is not hot.  But as I was thinking of the "dog days" I was transported to the time when most humans lived out doors and really watched their environments.  But did that mean that they were more considerate of their place than we are?

I concluded --probably not -- there were just so few of them that their destructive activities were of little consequence to the earth.  It is sort of like when you live in a detached house miles from your nearest neighbor -- it makes little difference to anyone if you play loud music, shoot guns, raise hogs, or whatever.  When people got crowded into apartments or postage stamp sized lots in cities and suburbs that this behavior had to be regulated.  We banded together and created laws concerning noise, discharge of firearms, livestock allowed, etc.  We had to be considerate of our neighbors and keep the loud music down and not shoot our guns whenever and wherever we want -- it is dangerous and/or annoying to others.

Many years ago, I attended a lecture on puebloan Native Americans -- and how they had slowly destroyed their environment by over-cutting, over-farming (in arid places) and in general just taking everything they wanted without regard to other peoples or the local animals. 

After a while the land could no longer sustain them and they either left or died out.  In those days there were lots of other places where they could go -- and start the cycle over again. This was called the Utterly Dismal Theory because it was like tracing a desolation band following settlements.  Can this be us?

Today we not so blessed with land everywhere that we can move to -- all we have is planet Earth and it is definitely finite --so are we like the puebloans who overused their environment and as a consequence our only alternative is to die out, since moving to Mars, the Moon, etc is just not feasible?  This would truly be utterly dismal.We do have choice if we can create a scientific literate citizenry who can stop and reverse this destruction...it is not as if we do not know how to do it -- we do.

The photograph below is taken at Wupatki National Monument and is a reminder that even advanced peoples can have problems -- is this us?

Wukoki Ruin - near Flagstaff AZ