Environmental Degradation and Man's Destiny

Dear George,

My, my, how the problems and crises are piling one upon another as the outlook dims and it seems as if homo sapiens is ready to exit stage right. There’s climate change, peak oil, over population, and a food and water crisis.

Quite frankly, George, the above are not crises, they are economic opportunities. Taken together, they represent the final triumph of capitalism. Each and every one of the above opportunities points to a single solution that will maximize their benefits: further environmental degradation.

Think about it. What is capitalism all about: it’s about the accumulation of capital through the maximization of profit. And profit is maximized by cutting expenses to the bone. This means that the more the population is reduced through resource scarcity, war and famine, the more expenses are cut. Wholesale extinction is the ultimate act of downsizing.

As resources shrink, they will become more expensive, which means they will accrue only to the few who can afford them. All others will be downsized. This and this alone, is the ultimate end point of history.

Prissy scientists are telling us that the only way the species will survive is if we reduce CO2 emissions to a part per million (ppm) of 350. They are currently at 385.

You and your cronies know this is pure bullshit. Man’s survival demands that we goose the CO2 ppm up to at least 1500. Rising seas, desertification, violent storms and death-dealing heat waves will cull the heard and will insure that only the fittest will survive (the fittest being, of course, those who can afford the shrinking resources.)

Let me tell you what man’s destiny is George; it is to congregate in the world’s greatest gated community that will sit atop the last remaining sea of oil in the Middle East. There the only sound will be the hum of air conditioners while the world’s last aquifer is used to turn the community into a tropical paradise.

Hard against the thick walls of this community will be the world’s last surviving favela where the few poor who survived mow the lawns and cater to the decadent desires of the wealthy. The only well-fed among the poor will be the enforcers who keep the poor in line. Booze and the women of the poor will keep the enforcers sedated and happy.

Few people realized what a visionary you were when you pulled us out of the Kyoto Protocol. Even now, environmentalists scoff at your advocacy of off-shore drilling. They scoff because they don’t share your vision of the ultimate capitalist society in which all that remains of life is a spreadsheet covered in black ink.

Your admirer,
Belacqua Jones