On Floods and Humans

The recent floods on the Mississippi River captured my interest and have pushed me into reflecting on a number of things. One, of course, is how stupid we are to build in what is so demonstrably a natural hazard zone. A second is how stupid we are to build levees and water control structures that guarantee flooding will only get worse in the future.

After thinking about those two elements it struck me that they are related in a way I had not initially realized. With new insight I see in my mind’s eye that both forms of stupidity combine to indicate a fundamental flaw in humans that does not bode well for the species or for the Earth.

As a species we are blind to future consequences of our actions because we are blinded by what we as individuals want now. Humans are capable only of recognizing and acting on the demands of the individual in the present. It’s all about our uncontrolled “needs” and desires that amounts to types of narcissism and hubris and indifference to other things all rolled into one colossal species specific reality.

We know what we want and do not care what we have to do, what we have to destroy, to get it. We as a group do not care what our actions are doing to and will do to the environment. As a few specific individuals, maybe, which is why we have organizations like the Natural Resources Defense Council or the Sierra Club. Yes, those liberal, idiot tree huggers.

But as a group we don’t give a rat’s ass. That’s exactly why the forests of Europe are gone. Why the Aral Sea is shrinking into nothingness. Why Lake Texcoco is gone. Why the Great American Prairie is gone. Why carrier pigeons, buffalo, and beaver are gone or nearly gone. Why the Everglades is no longer a viable ecosystem.

Because we want what we want and have the ability to take it and fuck the consequences. Which is why we face drastic times in the near-, mid-, and long-term future with global warming. We are blinded by what we want now.

The other day I drove to the grade school our children attended. My little Hyundai was surrounded by a herd of monster SUVs and vans. Dozens and dozens of SUVs and vans and practically no mid-sized or compact cars. We don’t give a shit about energy consumption or pollution in our daily lives. Not really. If we did no one would be driving those monsters. And that’s exactly why global warming has our future by the throat. Because the future is not present to us today. We only know what we want now and are able to grab.

The future isn’t real. Only now is real. Let someone else worry about the future. We’re too busy living in the present to give a shit.