Humans are not tough. We are not powerful. We are not fast. We cannot make our own food from carbon dioxide and water. Almost any non-Homo sapiens species of comparable size can destroy us in a fight and we would do little, if any, damage to it.
How have we survived?
Humans have a big brain. We use that brain to develop and share technology. The spear made us equal of species much larger than us. The gun made us the most powerful species on the planet. Writing has made it so that what one of us can do… all of us can do. Radio has allowed us to communicate with, almost literally, any other person on the planet.
We have harnessed technology and we have destroyed much of the planet in order to progress.
However, at some point, we can sufficient experience with technology and we can do much more with much less. We should never go backward. We must continue to move forward.
Is our current lifestyle sustainable? No. But with increasing levels of technology and increasing use of that technology, we can further reduce our impact on the planet to (hopefully) manageable levels.
A picture I saw on the internet emphasizes this.
That one device at the bottom can do everything all of those other devices used to do. It’s smaller and uses less resources to build. Using technology, we’ve managed to replace 30 pounds of gear with a half pound of gear.
We have done the same with energy generation. What used to require burning thousands of barrels of oil can now be done with a couple of windmills.
We have the ability to keep reducing our impact. To keep reducing the damage we do to the planet. And we must, if we want to retain a planet to live on.
