IS HUMANITY BRINGING ABOUT ITS OWN EXTINCTION?

By Leonardo Boff Reprint | | Print |

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 27 2007 (IPS) - Given the grim developments of our age, biologists, bioanthropologists, and astrophysicists are weighing the possibility that our species, homo sapiens/demens, may go extinct even in this century, writes Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian theologian and member of the Earth Charter. In this analysis, Boff writes that their arguments should be taken seriously. The most substantial seems to be overpopulation aggravated by the difficulty of adapting to climate change. Population growth has been exponential. It took humanity a million years to reach a population of 1 billion in 1850; at the current ever-increasing rate, this figure is set to reach 10 billion in 2050. Is this a triumph of the species or a danger for all humanity? What could end is not human life but this unthinking human life that loves war and mass destruction. We have to bring about a humane world where true justice is practiced, which respects life, desacralises violence, loves and cares for all beings, and which venerates the mystery of the world we call the Originary Source, or God. Or simply, we must learn to treat all human beings humanely and with compassion and respect for all creation. Everything that exists deserves to exist. Everything that lives deserves to live. Especially the human being.

Their arguments should be taken seriously. The most substantial seems to be overpopulation aggravated by the difficulty of adapting to climate change. Population growth has been exponential. It took humanity a million years to reach a population of 1 billion in 1850; at the current ever-increasing rate, this figure is set to reach 10 billion in 2050. Is this a triumph of the species or a danger for all humanity?

In their widely-read book Microcosmos, respected microbiologists Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan argue on the basis of fossil remains and evolutionary biology that one of the signs of the collapse of a species is rapid overpopulation. This process can be confirmed in a petri dish: shortly before they reach the borders of the dish and exhaust its nutrients, the bacteria multiply exponentially and suddenly die. For human life on the earth, the authors write, the end could be similar. In effect we occupy almost the entire surface of the planet; only 17 percent — deserts, the Amazon, and the polar regions — remains unoccupied. We are reaching the physical limits of the earth. Is this a sign of our impending extinction?

Nobel Laureate Medicine Christian de Duve writes in his book Vital Dust (1995) that various processes are now underway that in the past preceded major extinctions. Each year some 300 species go extinct naturally because they reach their evolutionary peak. However, the pressure of global industry on the biosphere has driven that number up to about 3500 species per year. Does this progressive destruction not threaten our species as well?

Astronomer Carl Sagan, who died in 1996, saw in the human desire to explore the moon and launch spacecraft beyond the solar system a sign that the collective unconscious sensed the risk of approaching extinction. The will to live impels us to imagine forms of survival away from the earth. Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking has conceived of the possibility of extraplanetary colonization with spacecraft propelled by laser rays. But to reach other planetary systems we would have to cross billions and billions of kilometres of space, which would take centuries. Ultimately the problem is that we are prisoners of the speed of light — 300,000 kilometres per second — which is considered unsurpassable.

What does Christian theology think of the eventual disappearance of the human species? I would say that if humanity botches its planetary adventure, it would be without question an unspeakable tragedy. But it would not be an absolute tragedy. When the Son of God took our form he was threatened with death by Herod. During his human life he was rejected, jailed, tortured, and finally crucified. Only at that point the concept was formalised of original sin, which is a historical process of the negation of life. Killing the author of life, God incarnate, is more evil than killing a creature, taking his life. But Christians testify that the last word is not death but resurrection, which is not the reanimation of a cadaver but the full realisation of human potential, a true revolution within evolution. Perhaps this would be a step towards what Pierre Teilhard de Chardin announced in 1933: an irruption of the noosphere, which is the state of awareness and relationship with nature, that will bring about a new convergence of minds and hearts and with it a new era of the human condition.

In this perspective the current scenario would not be tragedy but crisis. The crisis is purification and maturation. It foretells of a new beginning, the pain of a promised birth and not the pain of the shipwreck of the human voyage. What could end is not human life but this unthinking human life that loves war and mass destruction. We have to bring about a humane world where true justice is practiced, a world which respects life, desacralises violence, loves and cares for all beings, and which venerates the mystery of the world we call the Originary Source, or God. Or simply, we must learn to treat all human beings humanely and have compassion and respect for all creation. Everything that exists deserves to exist. Everything that lives deserves to live. Especially the human being. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)