No Joy In Mudville -- Swine Flu and The Human Future

The reality that inspired that old saying, “nature bats last” is making an uncomfortable and terrifying trip around the planet this week.

As the swine flu threatens a global pandemic, we are brought face to face with the innate and irrevocable power of our Earth’s global ecosystem to self-regulate. It’s nature’s version of the U.S. Constitution -- a system of checks and balances where no one entity is more powerful than the other. When operating correctly, this system produces balanced outcomes that limit the fecundity of any one species in order to ensure the viability of the whole system.

We are used to understanding this dynamic – and far more comfortable observing it -- when it applies to rabbits on the tundra, moose on an island, or bacteria in the Petri dish.

Now, however, this target is us! And we don’t like it one bit.

From the human perspective, the swine flu is something that rightly needs to be defeated and destroyed. But we should also see this unfolding event as an opportunity to remember that we are neither omniscient nor omnipotent on this planet. Our normal operating perspective, especially in the U.S., is that we have fundamentally conquered nature and partitioned ourselves as an elite species not subject to Earth’s forces. This means our economy can abuse our environment without penalty and our populations can increase forever.

Yet now -- as our fellow citizens begin to fall sick and die -- rather than gracefully partitioned, we begin to realize we may actually be quarantined!

On a planet that is asked to support a quarter million more humans every day (225,000) and 82 million more per year, can anyone be surprised that nature is reminding us of her prowess? Most serious ecologists have been saying for decades that the planet is over-populated by billions. And, most serious environmentalists already know that human population must be stabilized to have any shot at global sustainable development

As this terrible tragedy unfolds, isn’t it time to have a conversation about planetary sustainability and the fundamental role population stabilization must play in achieving it? Without serious discussions of this sort, it’s almost certain that nature will continue to bat last – but it will be humanity that ultimately strikes out.