Bryson

So I have been reading a lot of Bill Bryson lately.

I downloaded all his books and am working my way through each. Maybe it’s because I think he is a great travel writer and I can learn a thing or two. His observations and analogies are witty and well researched. But I am mentioning this only because the other day whilst reading his wonderful book “A Short History Of Nearly Everything” that a certain passage drew my attention and made me think. 

I would say that it is not a book for those who don’t like facts and figures. It is definitely for the geeky in nature, which I am, increasingly as I get older. Facts engage me, they don’t Daniela, but she tolerates me relaying things I read, her eyes do glaze over a lot from time to time, well mostly all the time. Anyway the thing I read was that if the history of the planet were condensed into one day, twenty four hours, (I know we have all heard this before but bear with me), our whole human existence, from the first hominids to us now would only account for the last minute and thirty seconds of that day! And, incredibly, that the whole of the, so called, civilised, industrialised world would only account for the last 38 seconds. Now that is quite staggering when you consider what we have achieved in such a short time. But also and most pertinently, how we have messed up so badly in just 38 seconds! The planet survived 4.5 billion years before we came along and destroyed pretty much every wilderness there is left. 

For the nay sayers, you know who you are, of course there have been plenty of natural calamities far greater in magnitude than we could possibly inflict. Asteroids, sun storms, plagues, extinctions and all manner of tectonic upheavals causing extinctions on a level we couldn’t even try to imitate. But, consider the miracle in the first place that we even got here through all that. 

We often hear about the miracle of life through the simple act of procreation. I’ve done it twice, (enjoyed it immensely both times) and it’s a remarkable thing. The chances of one of my sperm actually getting to the egg in the first place, its ability to get through the barrier of the egg then do its spermalogical thing and for nothing to go wrong in the next nine months when cells have to divide in a certain and specific way billions of times. And then for that phoetus to survive the full term and be born is surely one of lifes miracles. But now I am considering the longer term of the evolution of our species. 

Billions of years since the first life battled its way into existence from the primordial swamp. The first, the very first cell that connected miraculously, and for no particular reason, with another, and another and on and on for millions of years until finally a creature emerged that had a backbone. Or something vaguely like one. That amazing mutation led to others and others and countless millions of others that survived every apocalypse, hundreds of them, meteors, asteroids the size of millions of Hiroshima’s, ice ages, cataclysms unimaginable. ~And yet still our ancestors survived long enough to produce a myriad of other amazing mutations that eventually led to us. Probably either one of the cleverest most discerning beings that have ever existed or the stupidest? I leave that up to you to decide. But what have we done with our incredibly fortunate circumstance?

I am eternally dismayed by the helpless and the hapless situation we have contrived. No other being in the history of our known universe has ever been so daft. We fall off precipices taking selfies for gods sake! How daft is that? But it’s that kind of stupidity that not only makes me roll my eyes and sigh but also gives me hope for the future of everything else that exists. With our ineptitude comes our undoing. 

We selfishly and arrogantly assume the whole universe is there for us. Religion has given us permission. God created everything for us to enjoy. Absolute twaddle. I am an evolutionist, nature is my cathedral I worship at the altar of science. How anyone can see otherwise is far beyond me, the science is obvious and acutely persuasive, but each to his or her own. Just carry on believing you are eternal and find the nearest beauty spot that god provided, go up to the edge, right up, and take a selfie. 

You are probably wondering, where does travel feature in this whole rant? Usually I write informative, generally happy things about our experiences. But it isn’t that I am unhappy. I am extremely ecstatic to be honest. I only mention it because throughout all my travels, to many wonderful places I have witnessed the same selfish and somewhat arrogant attitude by all races. A kind of every man for himself principle, which if you look into the science of genes is pretty much what they are all about, selfish. Read Richard Dawkins’ ’The Selfish Gene” for the full story here. I dare you. 

Even in Costa Rica they are the same, not all but most are only acting in their own interests. But less so than in Europe. At least here, being a second world country, they don’t have the privilege of Sainsbury’s on the corner, or the welfare state, or anything they can rely on really. So their selfishness is more about survival, ours is more about consumption. 

It just makes me agitated sometimes as I know others feel. To see swathes of forest cut down to build palatial pads for expats under the guise of an eco lodge label. It isn’t very ecological to deprive a whole plethora of habitat to build one house now is it. The government here have implemented a reforestation campaign which started in the seventies. And a lot of trees have been planted. Millions of them. The only problem is that they are all teak. A fast and straight growing tree used for construction. Basically what they have created is a monoculture. Nothing grows other than the trees in the plantations. Monkeys and other wildlife don’t get any benefit from them at all. So these are dead forests really. And to top it all most of the teak is shipped to other countries anyway, so it isn’t really of any benefit to the people either. Only a few anyway. The same goes for coffee. Another monoculture but a tree nonetheless. Thousands of hectares sprayed with pesticides and coveted for its fruit. But the coffee is mostly exported and only a few extremely rich growers benefit from the crops. So what I read and researched on the internet before we left isn’t strictly true. They haven’t reforested back to 75% coverage, they have found a crop that benefits only the privileged few, and mostly foreign owners to boot. 

What we need are more forward thinkers, people who can see solutions without creating more problems. I know there are a lot of very intelligent and altruistic human beings who are dedicating their lives to the betterment of our environment for all creatures. We just need more. 

Earth has come a long way in four and a half billion years, And it’s all been just a matter of chance throughout that time. And now, finally, we turned up. A sentient being capable of using its opposing thumbs to build very clever things, brains capable of solving immensely difficult problems, science to explain everything we see and yet we are still killing ourselves on the precipice.

I’ll just leave it there and get building and thinking.