“Learning from past mistakes is not a new revelation”
by Frederick Sinclair
In a world graced with abundance and ever expanding opportunity , high technology, intellectual growth and scientific discovery is being curtailed by agendas that feed an insatiable hunger for wealth, control and power. The Internet is the greatest tool for human advancement since the printing press, yet it has been captured and hacked into, promoting addictions to social media, targeted marketing and the allure of instant gratification. Decision making and human evolution itself is plagued by consequences resulting from decision making that occurs without careful consideration of ramifications. Although uncomfortable, let’s remove the gloves and air out some hard truths.
Mankind, from the perspective of geologic time, is in its’ infancy and experiencing a ‘one step forward two steps back’ stage of development. Einstein warned of the insanity in making the same mistake over and over and expecting a different result, and he also pointed out the futility of attempting to solve problems, using the same thought process that created them. Lets take a look at and learn from some of the unforeseen and unfortunate consequences. They should impress on us the need to find and apply a new sanity in seeking new results:
- The use of lead in gasoline, waterlines and house paint released airborn and water born poison destroying health and costing billions to remediate.
- Tobacco was declared safe for decades before being exposed as a source of tar, nicotine and Radium in the lungs and resulting cancer.
- Nuclear power gives us electricity, weapons and nuclear medicine; along with deadly wastes that have to be isolated for many thousands of years.
- The mining and burning of fossil fuels, that has energized and lubricated the world for over a century, is being held responsible for global warming.
- Wind and Solar electricity, intended to aid in the transition away from burning fossil fuels, are resulting in new forms of dangerous pollution.
- Carbon credits, earned by solar and wind farms, are a new currency sold to industry, allowing polluters to continue polluting.
- The information age has spawned telecommunication networks which allow for information sharing, research and development never before known to mankind. However, unscrupulous use of subliminal suggestion techniques are causing one in five teenagers to display symptoms of smartphone based social media addiction .
- Artificial Intelligence, 5G and 4GLTE, cloud computing, building hundreds of acres of data processing centers and Bitcoin mining, have increased energy consumption to levels that are projected to negate energy and climate gains from solar and wind farms.
- Low earth orbit satellite connections for telecommunications, data transfer and national security will soon provide wireless saturation covering every square foot of the planet. Anticipated, to end up being in the hundreds of thousands, telecom satellites each need replacement every 5 years. The old will burn up on reentry, releasing aluminum nanoparticles that along with the pollution from endless replacement launches will severely impact the earths’ already weakened protective ozone layer. End game !
Learning from past mistakes is not a new revelation. The current industrial and special interests capturing of the government and regulatory agency decision making process, undermines such learning. Destructive consequences are written off as merely part of doing business, making money and acquiring control. The Constitution and established laws such as The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and in NYS the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) provide the framework to prevent ‘one step forward, two steps back’. We the people need to identify and insist that we and our leaders overcome destructive agendas. In doing so we will clear a path for humanity to attain balance and peace with our environment, ourselves and each other. We simply need to know what we are doing and eliminate that which prevents us from doing the right things!
