Evolution and Taboo

160 million years of evolution are to be stopped within a few years.
God's creation is still going on, even though certain school authorities in the midwest of the allegedly most progressive nation on the planet doesn't even recognise Darwin's fundamental work.
Apart from the ocean, our cradle, the rain forest is the great laboratory of evolution. We are endevouring to destroy both biotopes and have the arrogance to call it development.
The wonderful site of biological development, where there are more species than even science can list, where new life evolves time and again, is to be sacrificed to the short-sightedness of a mammal gone mad. The only animal that ever succeeded in eliminating control over its proliferation.

Each day more species of plants and animals disappear forever, even before they are properly catalogued.
Why?
Is the impoverishment of biodiversity desirable?
Certainly not, there is simply not enough room for biodiversity besides the human hordes.

How do religions react to this crisis?
Instead of using their immense influence and power to fight against the destruction of millions of organisms and their environment, they crusade against inconsequential human issues.
Most of them promise us a kind of continued life after death. But what about the continued life of our descendants?

The centre of the universe was believed to be the earth at one time in history. Woe to those who defied the religious dogma.
Then the universe ended with the solar system.
Today, at least science knows how insignificant is our position in the great theatre of the cosmos.

Still man hopelessly overestimates his importance.
If voices are raised today to save the environment in general and the rain forest in particular, then only because there are people living in it. Mere rain forest without rain forest dwellers is apparently not worthy of protection.
Indians and Penan are part of their forests. They have practised sustainable use long before we coined the term as a fig leaf to cover our bad conscience. Indigenous groups may well be our only hope that the small pockets of remaining rain forest are saved from the hordes of marauding timber companies, exploiters of ground resources, poachers, farmers and settlers. Our present system of economy with its short-term philosophy, doesn't give a hoot what we leave to our descendants.
With our mindless exponential population growth we manage to leave but rocks and desert in our wake.
I propose to extend anthropological terminology with a new subspecies for modern man: homo petrifax.

Most politicians are aware of the dangers entailed by the blind exploitation of resources. Their help, however, is limited to topical measures involving the provision of funds, the sending of experts in the fields of medicine, agriculture or education. These symptomatic treatments of the disease may have their effects. But never is the crisis tackled by its roots. Under no circumstances must the only measure be applied, that would have long-term effects, namely a reduction of world population.
That would mean entering an area labelled "taboo", fortified by unfortunate political correctness.
Any courageous politician, capable of showing us the mirror of reality, would be silenced rapidly by the industrial lobbies, the religions and the majority of the voters.

We all share an unreasonable interest to increase the runaway growth of population:

• The economy for reasons of market size,
  
• the military because of numerical superiority,
• the religions in order to defend their only true faith against hordes of unbelievers,
• the individual allegedly to provide for old age, in reality because sexual intercourse means pleasure.