At some time in your life you must have heard the saying, 'The more things change, the more they stay the same'. As a product of the 20th century, born to the use of electricity, but also knowing about lamp lights, the former gets preference. The use of electrical gadgets and modern comforts has certainly made the old ways of living seem not only trite but also passe. We certainly do not wish to return to the use of tree leaves and the outhouse. Horse drawn carriages and stagecoaches? No thanks.
Grateful are we also for the eradication of the bubonic plague, the decrease in polio, malaria, cholera and many other life threatening diseases. The modern train has certainly done wonders replacing the ancient caravans. Send messages by carrier pigeons? The new Internet can have New York to Mumbai in communication with each other in minutes. Ye olde transistor radio's, replaced by Blackberry's, I-Pads and Kindles.
Funny thing though, insignificant as radio may seem to some, it is still the basis of the telephone and Television and wireless internet communication. Once Radio got accepted and established, the prince of the air, the 'enemy of man, knew he had the seeds to plant the gradual training and programming of man. Telegraphs as in the early days of the stagecoach all depended upon wires. Not so with Radio.
In ancient times, reading and writing were reserved for the privileged of their respective societies, i.e. Priests and the Kings court or ruling class, however you'd prefer to refer to them. Today illiteracy is frowned upon and every member of society, has been required to know the basics. How much further one would like to enlarge their learning is up to the individual. Is not all this great technological improvement for the betterment of mankind? We have the latest in radar and satellite technology to predict the weather anywhere, but, it still cannot stop the tornadoes or tsunamis', blizzards or hurricanes.
Ancient writing was done on scrolls or on papyrus, and as such made the availability of knowledge to the underclass undesirable,not economically feasible so to speak, until the discovery of how to make paper and produce the printed word. Enter the beginning of mercury being introduced into the lives of man, as it was now a necessary ingredient in the production of ink. As wood was the primary ingredient in the manufacture of paper, Trees, which served as a valued source of giving us pure oxygen in our air supply, began to be decimated from the face of many a mountain and Forrest.
The other negative side effect was that in producing paper from wood, the paper mills, usually set up by or close to rivers or streams, produced runoff into those waters which, naturally had the chemical residues of what they used in the manufacturing processes, which in turn began the cycle of pollution on our once pristine planet. To the common man not living in the immediate vicinity, or affected by such, the loss of a stream or two, or a couple of rivers was a trade off for progress. Back then the supplies of trees and water seemed an almost inexhaustible supply. Who knew it would become finite?
Apart from being a source supply of paper, trees were , and is still used as lumber for building homes, in the construction industry for the building of skyscrapers, shipping docks, roads, and furniture. Almost two hundred years later we are bemoaning the loss of trees, and realizing the value they have in our ecosystem. Birds, Squirrels and various other creatures and insects also use trees as a home, and , as man became more and more industrially advanced , so too did more and more species of life become extinct.
While the number of species of life on land began to decimate, it is unclear, or rather, no one knows just how much aquatic species have disappeared under the onslaught of civilization, which brings us back to what has now become a finite commodity, water. Mankind in the use of water in our cities, has contributed to so much waste and pollution of this life supporting substance that it boggles the mind.
For those who can afford it, a water purifying system for the home is a mandatory piece of equipment. Such a luxurious machine was not in use during the time of the black plague, however man has bounced back from the scourges of leprosy and other ancient illnesses with remarkable powers of recovery. Perhaps these were not fast enough to destroy mankind and so the 'enemy' stirred up the first world's war among the industrialized powers, for as man came up with new inventions to make life seem easier, he also came up with newer and more deadly weapons of warfare, making killing on a larger scale than ancient times more possible. Guns and bullets replaced bows and arrows.
Today's modern arsenal of nuclear bombs make the grenade, TNT and nitroglycerin relics of the past along with slingshots, spears and stone tomahawks. Man now has at his fingertips the means to wipe out every living thing on the earth and in the oceans. Scary but true we are living in the shadow of death. With the production of the printing press, man began to build more and more factories, including automobile plants.
This proliferation only led to more pollutants in our air and water. the automobile had to run with petrol, which was refined from crude oil upon the discovery of it. This petrol was now called gasoline and while we were happy to have this newfound power of transporting ourselves, no one gave a thought to what was coming out of the tailpipes of the automobile. At the start of the 18th century cars and the technology to create them began to become more and more prevalent. As with anything new, this fairly new contraption was something only the very wealthy could afford to tinker with it.
Henry Ford, the creator of the Model T made the automobile available to the common man and a new era was born. Interesting to note was that the first prototypes of the modern automobile were steam powered, until the petrol based designed engines won over the mindset of the then prevailing scientific minds involved with the production of these engines. With the common man now buying an automobile, the law of supply and demand began to take effect, as there had to be places where to get fuel.
Apart from the creation of urban sprawl, the other draw back was now man had to seek places on the globe where there were mass quantities of this crude oil in order to run his machines. As with anything that man ventures with there were bound to be mishaps. OIl spills not only occurred on land, [making that parcel of earth toxic] but by the time that it began to be shipped, there were numerous occasions of tragedy at sea with sinkings and accidents creating highly toxic areas at sea.
The most two infamous incidents in recent memory were the Exxon-Valdez incidence in Alaska and the recent debacle in the Gulf of Mexico. Those events, coupled with world's wars 1 and 2 have contributed greatly to making the once infinite supply of the oceans waters a finite supply. Will civilized man change his ways to be at one with his surroundings? We have met the Enemy and he is us, We all need to change the way we support those whose ways of doing business is detrimental to the planet earth and therefore ourselves. Sure some companies allege that they support the greening of the planet, or that they themselves are a green company, but that my friend is a smoke screen by some. Just because they say that they are doesn't mean that they do what they say, so until the next time, live well, be happy, make love, we bid you Peace.
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