improving the world

[spiritwalker]

if you could go back in time and remove something for the benefit of mankind / nature what would you do or change?

id remove the invention of plastic as i cannot think of anything made from it that cant be made with something more renewable / less destructive....


over to the think tanks....

 

[Imagedude]

I'd remove humans. Wouldn't benifit mankind but the world would be a better place.

Given that most of our problems are due to overpopulation we should start to limit offspring per couple to 1.

 

[Barn Owl]

I'd remove humans. Wouldn't benifit mankind but the world would be a better place.

Have to agree but i'm of the opinion that someone or something gave our ancestors a wee jab of something to help us get to where we are...so destructive.

 

[spiritwalker]

you could argue they also shaped the world? dont think we are all bad just wish we hadnt butchered all the natives over the years....

 

[Everything Mac]

About 90% of the population would about do it I reckon.

 

[spiritwalker]

industrial revolution was another one on my mind

 

[Steffen]

i'd remove gunpowder.
because it makes it possible for governments to decide who gets to have weapons.

 

[Everything Mac]

industrial revolution was another one on my mind

Perhaps we should continue this discussion via telegram or messenger boy then?

One can moan about technology but we have come a long way. Having had a computer/mobile phone/ car. Would it really be easy to give the whole lot up?

Andy

 

[Wook]

I'm always unsettled by how readily so many people among both the bushcraft and environmental movement will profess anti-human sentiment.

I like humans. I married one. I fathered another 4. All of whom I love deeply and would give my life for. I think they make the world a better place, and I'll do everything within my power to maximise their lives here.

I don't think this whole "lets kid rid of mankind" thing is nearly as noble as folk seem to think.

There is nothing admirable about barely veiled genocide fantasies.

 

[Barn Owl]

Not anti human, just believe we are not a totally natural product for this planet.

I'm always unsettled by how readily so many people among both the bushcraft and environmental movement will profess anti-human sentiment.

I like humans. I married one. I fathered another 4. All of whom I love deeply and would give my life for. I think they make the world a better place, and I'll do everything within my power to maximise their lives here.

I don't think this whole "lets kid rid of mankind" thing is nearly as noble as folk seem to think.

There is nothing admirable about barely veiled genocide fantasies.

 

[Toddy]

I do. The record of our evolution is there, piecemeal right enough but it's there, and the other great apes are so closely 'us' that it simply backs that up.

Humanity's very 'human-ness' is a total jumble of both self centredness and philantophism, and empathy, that it's no wonder there is little agreement on how we 'should' behave.

There is another bit to remember before we condemn the past; Our certain past, was their very uncertain future; or as they say too, "The past is a different country."

Plastics ? definitely going to define our period in the stratigraphy but so incredibly useful, and adaptable, and easy to use, and did I mention?.....they're cheap.
Whether they'll still be cheap to our descendants is another question entirely.

I'm with Wook; I like people

cheers,
Toddy

 

[santaman2000]

....Plastics ? definitely going to define our period in the stratigraphy but so incredibly useful, and adaptable, and easy to use, and did I mention?.....they're cheap.....

And contrary to popular belief, they ARE renewable. Although much plastic is still made from petroleum (non-renewable) an increasinly large qunaity is made from vegetable renewable oil.

 

[santaman2000]

i'd remove gunpowder.
because it makes it possible for governments to decide who gets to have weapons.

Not really. It's easier to make gunpowder at home than to make steel.

 

[cbr6fs]

Cancer.

I'd remove cancer.

Sure we all have to die, but cancer is such a undignified and painful way to end some ones life.



As for removing humans.
The earth was pretty much screwed before human kind came and it'll be well and truly screwed after we're gone.
In the grand scheme of things as a species we're not even a pin ***** on the earth's evolution.

 

[demographic]

i'd remove gunpowder.
because it makes it possible for governments to decide who gets to have weapons.

Gunpowder was also used as an explosive down mines and for quarrying.
Civil engineering would have struggled without it for quite some time. Eventually someone would have invented gun cotton eventually which is a lot more powerful, then onto nitro-glycerine, stabilisation of that to dynamite (honourable mention to Alfred Nobel there) to a far more useful explosive which made the panama canal possible.

I'm struggling to think of a human invention that doesn't have a positive application.
Even nuclear science has given us X rays, radiation therapy, radiography (industrial as well as medical) and far better understanding of cosmology.

Oh, hang on a bit I've thought of a totally useless invention...

X Factor.

 

[kennyboy]

Religion.

Nuff said.

 

[bb07]

I'd remove the root of all evil -money. But then I couldn't buy gunpowder

 

[spiritwalker]

im not anti human either its just a bit of fun to see what things we seem as a bad idea and might have been better without them.

when i see people in tribal places or areas of poverty to some degree i am always amazed to see how happy the children are or perhaps the media just portrays the happiness. i also think that at the moment mankind has gone a bit slack, when i watch programmes such as wartime farm etc people seemed to be made of much better stuff during hardship. i do wonder if under similar circumstances we would be the same as we are now...

plastic has always been my pet hate mainly due to its environmental impact and it is finite in the number of times it can be recycled. i dont believe there is a single essential product out there made of plastic that cant be made from a more natural material? but as mentioned its cheap and hence its dominance in our current way of life.

technically we have done amazing things and we perhaps learnt more about caring for the world recently than we have ever known but unfortunately money makes us not enforce these technologies and i cant see a change happening with this system soon...

 

[sandbender]

Religion.

Nuff said.

I'd modify that to 'organised religion', certainly any that lean towards patriarchy.

 

[mountainm]

I'd modify that to 'organised religion', certainly any that lean towards patriarchy.

Simplified to prejudice.