HOW QUICKLY THINGS CAN CHANGE

 

HOW QUICKLY THINGS CAN CHANGE

 

Less than a century and a half ago we didn’t have any of the following things that today we take for granted.  It’s an extensive list and more than likely I forgot quite a few and you can add your own.  Without any particular order.

Automobiles, super highways, chemicals and synthetics, traffic lights, megacities, subways, full electrification, plastics, throw-away items or one-time use items, landfills, widespread air, water and soil contamination, industrial smog contributing to global warming, central heating, tap water, showers, water heaters, natural gas furnaces, computers, herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, the internet, cellphones, tablets, automation, robots, digital and nanotechnologies, artificial intelligence, cyberspace, rockets, GPS, sonar, radar, nuclear energy and bombs, passenger airplanes, jet fighters, stealth bombers and submarines, aircraft carriers, automatic pilots, drones, hypersonic missiles, space travel and let’s not leave out modern medicine and healthcare.

We take all of the above and more for granted, but what do all these things have in common?

A lot of them are expensive to produce and use a tremendous amount of resources and energy.  The bulk of the resources and energy used hails from non-renewable resources; coal, natural gas, oil and nuclear power, rare earth minerals and ore.  Poof!  Most of it gone up in smoke and gone forever.  On top of that, most of what we produce is constructed from materials that are non-compostable.  Which means that at the end of their lifespan all those materials are dumped in landfills where they slowly rot and disintegrate, contaminating groundwater sources in the process.

We’re gobbling up the planet.

All of this has been achieved at the expense of the planet and to the detriment of the natural world.  To bring us ease of living, comfort and a plethora of consumer products; many of them totally useless, mere trinkets to amuse for a short period of time.  The last item on my list and probably the most important is modern medicine and healthcare.  Wonderful improvements in health and nutrition caused a huge drop in mortality rates and as a result human lifespans have been extended dramatically.  We’re keeping more people alive than ever before.  In 1902 we started out with 2.5 billion humans, fast forward to 2025 and in record time we have added nearly 6 billion more.  Add to this our growing need and demand for energy and consumer goods and a quadrupled human population hell-bent on joining the consumer frenzy with all the perks and toys and we have now created the ultimate recipe for the perfect storm that is about to descend upon humanity.

Running out.  Die off.  Extinction.

Go back that century and a half ago and to all the things we did without and yet even in those days they experienced a host of setbacks and disasters.  We have been blinded to what technology and science have been able to accomplish within a super short time and yet we have failed to grasp that while on this wild merry-go-round, that everything comes at a cost.

I like to compare our situation to a large pizza.  It’s a fan favorite that all of us like to sink our teeth in when nobody feels like cooking.  We’re now nibbling on the very last slice and nobody is thinking about that last bite and who will get it.

An example only silly me can relate to.

Another example to drive home the reality of running out is a bit personal.  Can you imagine waking up one morning and there is no cheese.  None in the house, none in the store and none anywhere in the whole wide world.  No biggie for some of you but you’re talking to a chap who was born and raised in the Netherlands.  Milk products are part of our DNA and it runs through our veins: cheese, milk, yogurt, butter; a fine piece of Gouda, Edam or Beemster Vlakaas.  You can keep your Brie or Gruyere, give me a piece of fine Dutch cheese anytime.

Anyway, the point in all of this.  Can you imagine waking up in a world where there is absolutely nothing left?  Nothing left to buy, nothing produced.  The cupboards are empty and in shuttered stores shelves remain bare.  No refills.  Nothing moves because there is no power.  No power in any form or shape.  No power to provide water pressure to taps that run dry and toilets that don’t flush.

When everything stops running and we run out!

We will fight over scraps.  We will kill over what is left.

No law and order.  No protection.  No healthcare.  No hospitals.

It turns into a race for survival and anyone sick, old, feeble and unable to join the scroungers and scavengers will be left behind to die.

A wakeup call.

That is what my novel, Diary of a Spoiler, is all about.  The end of human civilization as we know it.  Done in by our numbers and consumption habits, greed and stupidity.  Those who manage to survive, who hold onto life, live by their wits and their mantra is simple: don’t get hurt, don’t get sick and if you’re lucky you’ll make it to forty.

The world around them grows silent as billions of people die.  None of us have ever seriously contemplated what it would be like if all that easy living comes to a grinding halt.  We take so much for granted.  Things can change quickly, especially when everything runs out.

I wrote Diary of a Spoiler in 1996 and when it came out a lot of people shrugged their shoulders and said that none of my predictions would ever take place.  The last decade has seen a lot of converts.  Give it a read and you be the judge.   

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