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We still don't get it
?Back in the early 70s (your editor was a typically idealistic youth back then), it seemed like the human race was on the verge of some pretty amazing scientific progress. We had just landed on the moon, and it seemed like the planets were within reach. But within a decade, we stopped going to the moon, and now even the shuttle program has ground to a halt. What happened to our thirst for exploration?
By the 70s, we had eradicated once-fearsome diseases like smallpox, tuberculosis and polio; could cancer and heart disease be far behind? Now, although we raise millions upon millions of dollars for medical research, progress seems agonizingly slow. Thousands succumb every day to these diseases; we make lightning-fast improvements in electronic communication, but we can’t seem to be able to figure out how to prevent a cancer cell from growing, or to quickly spot it once it appears, or to ruthlessly kill it once we find it. It’s easy to get cynical, to begin to believe that perhaps the health industry is hooked on research, not really all that interested in finding a cure. Why haven’t we banned tobacco farming? What happened to our war on disease?
As the 70s began, concern for the environment was rapidly gaining ground. Every week, there were new books on clean energy, ecological preservation, personal commitment to living an earth-friendly lifestyle. But here, a decade into the 21st century, we’re still dependent on the same old evil stuff. Why was the oil-based disaster in the Gulf of Mexico even a possibility? Why didn’t we phase out oil production years ago in favour of solar or wind or geothermal energy? Why do we still have nuclear power plants with nuclear waste that will threaten our children millennia into the future, why is a guzzler like the Hummer even allowed to be manufactured, why do we put a stop to wind turbines because someone says they disturb the neighbouring cows?
There was a ground-breaking book in the 70s called The Limits to Growth, put out by a think tank called the Club of Rome, which said that mankind was headed for disaster if we didn’t rein in our mania for galloping growth: population growth, economic growth, any kind of growth.
Some nations got the message; it’s a crime now in China to have more than two children, with considerable financial incentive to have only one. That has led to stabilization of the population in a very short time. You have to think that if we applied the same will power to other areas that the Chinese have to controlling population, we could turn things around rapidly. Or is it too late? For a lot of people in the Gulf states, you’d have to think so. First Katrina, now this.
Even at the local level, people don’t seem to get it. There are a couple of things which are seriously impeding Uxbridge’s ability to participate in the urban sprawl that has cursed places like Markham, Stouffville or Brooklin. Our location on the Moraine, and our limited capacity to dump sewage in the surrounding watershed, are in our minds blessings that will keep our town a community to cherish. A lot of local politicians don’t agree. In the weeks and months leading up to the fall election, the whole question of growth will be one of the key issues we’ll examine.
