Co-operate or else
None of this is new. Most understand that the evolutionary success of Homo Sapiens has resulted in population growth, an aging society and the increased exploitation of the natural world. They realise that this exploitation of nature has resulted in climate change, loss of bio-diversity and pollution. They also understand that although capitalism has enabled most of us to live healthier and more rewarding lives, it also has downsides that, if uncontrolled, can result in corruption, tax evasion, exploitation and inequality. Uniquely amongst mammals, humans have acquired the knowledge and skills to change the direction of evolution. Our scientists and economists know what has to be done. We have to stop burning fossil fuels, eat less meat, tax fairly and much more. To do so however, will mean changing lifestyles, planning long term and co-operating internationally.
The difficulty is that the competitive instincts which caused the evolutionary success of mankind are now operating against us. Co-operating with those outside our own nation or community to work for the good of all mankind is not an evolutionary process. Many, including US Republicans, continue to deny that climate change is happening, despite all the evidence in the world around us. Most acknowledge the problem, but believe the issue is too big for individuals to tackle and look to the government to solve it. However, when political parties, such as the Greens, focus on environmental issues that require changes in lifestyle they do not win wide support. Even when adverse effects become clear and obvious, attitudes are hard to change. You’d think that Australians, in the front line of catastrophic droughts, floods and fires in 2019, would by now, be demanding that their government front up to the problem. However, the Liberal coalition government, that resisted plans to sharply cut down on carbon emissions, was re-elected. It seems that the urgent need to address these evolutionary issues is not yet widely accepted by the general public.
Human culture is struggling to adapt to the pace of change of memetic evolution. We remain focused on short term problems with opinions set by past experience. Few look at the big picture and understand the nature of the challenge or the speed of change. Rather than anticipating evolutionary issues, we see daily how our politicians are always reacting to events with surprise. In the UK, the NHS totters on the edge of collapse, but the government still has no plan on how to cope with the health care costs of an aging population. Micro-plastics are polluting the oceans and the government is only talking about banning cotton buds. Despite all the promises about tackling climate change, the level of greenhouse gases continues to rise at an alarming rate. Google and Apple continue to avoid paying taxes and nothing is done about it. Amazon is becoming a global monopoly market place and no one seems concerned. The latest disaster has arrived with the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite warnings, Western governments were totally unprepared to deal with the challenge; tresting and tracing was slow to start, PPE was not available and the policy response was inadequate.
We have reached the start of the end-game, when global wealth will not advance, life expectancy will deteriorate and humanitarian crises will proliferate. We have big decisions ahead on how to cope with the coming emergencies and the type of society we want to be. Local solutions will not work. Controlling climate change, addressing the issues of biodiversity and reducing pollution requires international action. Multi-nationals and the internationally mobile rich cannot be appropriately taxed and controlled if countries compete to attract their spending power. If we continue to avoid the lessons of evolution and compete, nation on nation and individual on individual, we will continue to regress towards a sort of pre-first world war society where nationalism and class divisions prevail. And of course, the environment will continue to degrade with a negative outcome for us all.