Does the human race have a death wish?

 There was an interesting article in the Guardian yesterday, on the subject of the role of carbon dioxide in mass extinction events in the Earths history. It is fascinating and well worth a read. Apparently there have been five mass extinction events in the Earths history. In each, the carbon cycle was disrupted. Volcanic activity played a major role in these events. The article posed the question whether the current global warming we are seeing could spark a similar event, without the need for any super volcanos. I must confess that I haven't got a clue. The article said that a super volcano was responsible for the biggest of these, and it produced enough lava to cover 48 states in the USA in a 1km thick sheet of lava. This resulted in 90% of life on earth dying out. The Earth was a very different planet then, but it seems sensible to do research and at least see if our activities as a race risks triggering such a disaster. The fact that we seemingly willfully are doing our best as a race to not take action, when the effects of CO2 production and pollution are there for all to see. It got me thinking "Has humaity got a death wish?". Sadly the more I think about it, the more it seems that maybe we have. Lets look at the evidence.

In the UK, we happily fill all our streams etc with sewage. We are a modern, developed nation, yet we are totally unable, as a country, to safely process all of the shit we produce. We expect clean water to come out of our taps, but happily fill every other source of water with sewage. How can this be the actions of a sane race?

Then there is the amount of CO2 we produce. There is eveidence all around us of climate change. However we have all manner of politicians, most of whom probably couldn't manage a GCSE in woodwork, let alone an understanding of science, who simply deny that there is a problem. I am not clever or well educated enough to understand the science, but I do know that when people start waving red flags, you slow down until you can properly assess the risks. I personally would trust scientists who do understand, rather than you tube vidders who scream ill informed and unresearched claims. I was reminded by a little puzzle my Dad once set me when I was a kid, and we were discussing his time in the RAF. The engines on your bomber need checking, There are three engineers in the squadron, one is white, one is black and one is Asian. Which one do you ask to fix it? The correct answer? The best engineer. We need the best scientists to work on things like climate change and we need to listen to them. If you'd asked me in 2019, I'd have said climate change was the biggest threat to humanity and the other species on the planet. I have changed my mind. So what is the biggest threat?

Well this week we saw a conference in America, where the Leaders of Europe came to pay homage to The most wonderful President Donald Trump. Proper tribute was given and the President was pleased. Trump is perhaps the most powerful man on the planet, and his whims can destroy nations economies, start or stop wars and reshape industries and policies that have been the status quo for decades. His most wonderfulness is a convected felon and a man who's businesses regularly go bankrupt. Yet somehow several hundred million Americans decided he was the best man for the job. The difficult truth is that if you believe in democracy, Trump is a challenge. If every other leader in the world was sane, decent, honest and rational, it probably wouldn't be a problem. However, that is not the situation we have. I'm not going to list them here, but we all know that there are several major conflicts, where the leaders instigating the atrocities cannot in any way shape or form be described as decent, honest people. Now this wouldn't be so important except that there are nuclear weapons in many of these troubled rejoins. Democracy has not rid the world of these awful devices, in fact they are proliferating. We have leaders who clearly have no respect for human life. I can sort of understand their disdain for the lives of their enemies, but what is absolutely terrifying is their lack of concern for their own citizens. If a leader has no compassion, even for their own people, what hope is there. The sad truth is that many of the nations involved in these conflicts have clearly got the worst leaders they could possibly have. 

Where do we look for moral leadership in these times? The most depressing aspect to what is going on, is that my honest answer is "I don't know". I am someone who always believes that we cannot sit around and simply blame everyone else, politicians, generals, capitalism. We are all part of this ecosystem. We can't change many things, but we can buy products that use less packaging, we can turn off lights, so we produce less CO2. We can stand up and say "This isn't right, you do not speak for us" when our leaders  act in bad faith. I wish we could do more. I know it may seem futile. But one thing I truly believe is that decent, rational people do not shout loudly. The voices we hear shouting are those with least to say. Maybe this should change.