How smart are we really?

We as humans are very smart and we think we know exactly how to take care of ourselves, but do we really?  We are at the top of the food chain. We know a lot of things about how to survive. Our scientists have brought us to the point where we enjoy longer lives, and have taught us a lot about the cycles of life, the weather and our planet.  Yet we do not know everything and are making new discoveries every day.  But how smart are we really? 

Take for instance the fact that we are putting poisons in the air, the water and the very earth itself every single day by the ton it seems. Arrogantly we think that because the poisons are added in small amounts this will have no effects on us, but will yield bumper crops, and rid us of pests such as weeds and insects in the bargain, and so far at least it has. We then consume the crops we've grown taking the poisons into ourselves.  Our livestock consumes the same so we get a double dose through them. Then we feed these chemicals to our livestock as well. We even go so far as to consume (additives and preservatives), or inject ourselves with chemicals and drugs  that are damaging to ourselves in the long run and even the short term.   At what cost though? For instance there is a new study that has been done on road rage.  It seems that the smell of gasoline has some very negative affects on our brains. People are dying from the H1N1 flu shot and/ or are have severe reactions to it and some are becoming paralyzed for life. Our ongoing war against death, disease and yes, nature is leading us into trouble on a very personal as well as planetary scale.

Links to follow:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/11/exposure-gas-fumes-cause-road-rage.php?campaign=th_rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+treehuggersite+%28Treehugger%29
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/091125/health/health_flu_vaccine_reactions
http://beta.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/science-matters/health-care-pros-signal-importance-of-keeping-the-environment-healthy/
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/travel-outdoors/countries-endangered-species.html?campaign=daylife-article

Wild life species are dying off in the thousands. More and more people are developing breathing problems and food sensitivities, cancer and other diseases that cause a lack in quality of life through their limiting effects and in some instances incredible suffering, and death.  Yet because we are always looking for an easier way we continue to experiment, altering the genetics of foods, adding yet more chemicals to the mix, developing potentially hazardous medicines, and setting up deadly energy production centers like nuclear power plants.

Meanwhile the weather patterns of the world are changing, the polar ice caps are melting, glaciers are melting, oceans are polluted, warming and becoming acidic as a result of being overloaded with our carbon emissions. Link here: http://beta.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/science-matters/all-life-depends-on-the-oceans/
Our rivers and lakes in some instances have become so polluted that you cannot even swim in them. Some places in the world are now heating up and becoming barren as water sources dry up, animal species behavior is changing in response and even dying out.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/11/desertification-in-turkey.php
 http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/10/chinese-desrtification-spreads-1300-square-miles-annually.php  Our habit of killing off certain species of plants and insects that we consider to be pests, is also killing those that are beneficial to us. Our life pond is becoming dangerously polluted, and mother nature is rebelling.

More links to follow:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/11/us-sewers-dump-dangerous-waste.php?campaign=th_rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+treehuggersite+%28Treehugger%29
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/11/fighting-water-scarcity-with-gps.php?campaign=th_rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+treehuggersite+%28Treehugger%29
http://beta.davidsuzuki.org/share/the-blog-garden/plight-of-the-humble-bee/

Because we are making the mistake of no longer living in harmony with nature and the natural cycles of life, we have come to a point where we are already paying the price, and yet we continue to experiment on a world wide scale. How does subjecting ourselves to all of this poison affect our own genetics, our nervous systems and our general health?  Or for instance, how does altering the genetics of our food, affect us in the long run? We do not know this, as this process has only recently begun.   How does it affect the planet? We do not know this either.  We embrace new ideas, abilities and inventions, and act on them before we even have a hint of  the possible outcome of our actions. Sometimes many years pass by before we learn of our mistakes.  Is this wise?  Is it even smart? 

You would think that at this point we would realize we've made some huge mistakes, stop, and find a way to clean up our  "mess", but just like a child who is being told that play time is over and its time to clean his or her room, we are rebelling.  No one seems to want to act  to clean up the global environment, or when they do, are dragging their perspective feet to get to a point of action.  Some, for whatever reason, are even trying to suppress the effort and yet our very survival depends on doing so, as confirmed by scientists all over the world.  So the question is this, what's the cost in terms of effort, consequence and money if we act now, versus the cost of the same if we wait? After all problems sometimes have a way of snowballing if not acted on immediately.

Do we wait for world wide food famine, or war and/or civil war caused by the same before we act?  Copenhagen is coming up soon.  Take action.
Some final links:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/11/human-face-hunger-climate-action-copenhagen-food-security-conference.php?campaign=th_rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+treehuggersite+%28Treehugger%29
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/10/organic-farming-could-stop-global-climate-change.php

Susan