Is the world worth saving?

Why does the question need to be asked? Because we're already answering it, by our actions (or rather, our lack of action), with a resounding "No!" - but we're pretending we're not.

But I'd better step back a moment and try to answer another question:

Does the world need us to save it?

First, let me clarify a point. When I use the word "world," I mean the world with humans in it, not the biosphere itself. The biosphere will almost certainly go on whether we're here or not. My concern now is for humanity, and for the other creatures we're taking with us as we destroy the world.

I don't pretend to be a scientist. I'm not qualified to make an expert assessment about the state of the world, so I'll defer to the folks who are.

In 1992 (Christian calendar), the National Academy of Sciences of the United States and the Royal Society of London released an unprecedented joint statement entitled Population Growth, Resource Consumption and a Sustainable World. This passage comes from the introduction:

"If current predictions of population growth prove accurate and patterns of human activity on the planet remain unchanged, science and technology may not be able to prevent either irreversible degradation of the environment or continued poverty for much of the world."

And this, from the Conclusions section:

"The future of our planet is in the balance. Sustainable development can be achieved, but only if irreversible degradation of the environment can be halted in time. The next 30 years may be crucial."

More, this time from World Scientists' Warning to Humanity, released by the Union of Concerned Scientists that same year:

"If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know."

Could the scientists be too pessimistic? Sure. There's much we still don't even understand about the earth, so we can't hope to know exactly what will happen as we run roughshod across it. If sober, measured scientists are talking apocalyptically, though, we would be insane not to listen.

Problem is, that's exactly what we're doing - not listening. Oh, sure, we've passed some laws, written some regulations, convened some expensive global conferences, and made a lot of impressive-sounding speeches over the last 40 years. Recycling bins and "greenspeak" have become commonplace. None of this has any hope of saving the world, though:

• Laws and regulations? After a quarter-century, we're still mud wrestling over clean air and water rules. We aren't going to legislate the saving of the world.
• Recycling? I'm all for it, but it's not even making a serious dent in our waste problem, much less addressing the real issues.
• Speeches and greenspeak? I hear what you do, not what you say. From that perspective, we haven't said much.

Meanwhile:

• We're seeing species die off faster than at any time since the end of the age of the dinosaurs, and we're the ones killing them.
• Global warming is changing the very life support system of the world - the climate - and the scientific consensus is that our fossil fuel consumption, deforestation, and other choices are at least partially responsible for turning up the heat.
• We've ripped massive holes in the global sunscreen, the ozone layer.
• We've poisoned the earth's surface and waters with chemicals that are disrupting the basic processes of life.
• The human population has grown by roughly 3 billion.

And those are just the biggies.

So I say it's time we either put up or shut up. We should either get down to the wonderful work of saving the world, or we should quit fooling ourselves and go out in a last binge of miserable excess.

If we decide on the binge, though, we'd best take a bit of time to start making up excuses to give our children and grandchildren when we hand over a devastated world to them. I doubt "our dog ate the planet" will fly.

And, if you've decided to save the world, then the question becomes: Can we? Can we live as part of the community of life?

Sure we can. Humans have done so for millions of years. We've only been trying to conquer the place for ten thousand years, give or take a few, and even then it's only been one culture - ours - doing so. We are not the whole story of the human species - we are not humanity.

There are other cultures, other peoples, still in the world who are quite happy to live as part of the community of life. We've wiped out most of them, but not quite all. There is much we could learn from them, if we decide we want to live.

What will it take? Really, it all comes down to one thing, and only one. We have to give up the idea that the world is human property, deeded to us by whatever creative force you happen to believe in. Shatter that myth- and a myth it is - and everything else is possible.

All we have to do to begin is change our minds.