This page has a black background. This is because the contents of it are mostly pretty morose if not down right depressing. I will explain why I'm fairly certain that we're all on the brink of doom. Since this is an ongoing project this page will forever be 'under construction'.
Mankind has been walking the Earth for hundreds of thousands of years. It is however only during the last 100 or so years that everything has really gone downhill. Our oceans and lakes are dying, as the water and the Earth become increasingly poisoned. Animals and forests are brought to extinction, because of pollution and of excessive hunting or lumbering, respectively. The rich countries annually burn more meat than the third world countries consume. In the 70s we started using freons and it's only these last few years, when the first vapors have finally reched the ozone layer that we have understood that it's dangerous. 25 years worth of freon is still on its way up... We're all going to get very nice tans.
We are so sure that we're the crown of evolution that we have stopped questioning our own existence and the ways of our lives. This especially applies to Western world societies. Our preoccupation with making life even more comfortable, makes us pretty much unaware that all the while we are rapidly emptying the world of it's resources and destroying the very foundations of life, including our own. How can we eat, if no other animals can? We are part of an ecosystem, see.
Governments won't do anything about this, scared shitless that people might question them, not wanting to reduce their quality of life(?). So they make some small improvements and blabber on about them, with pollution increasing and not diminishing. Since the market economies of Europe and North America (mainly) have advertised their own supremacy over the third world countries, they're all desperately trying to get where we are, all the while adding to the pollution and environmental destruction. Of course this will lead to Mankind's doom, as we can't live off meat alone and that is what we will soon be left with. Our own flesh.
It's only when natural disasters strike that we stop to think... Maybe we've made some kind of mistake? Perhaps the climate changes and the hole in the ozone layer really are our fault? Perhaps we are the reason that so many species are on the verge of extinction? And then we shrug our shoulders and continue on our merry way. No need to worry. Life is too short for these things to matter.
And all the while we keep fighting amongst ourselves. Wars are fought all over the world, for many reasons. As food and clean water become more and more scarce, we can all rest assured that a good many more wars will erupt due to starvation and sickness. Of course there are also religions and other inventions, just as sick and twisted, to be reckoned with.
Is there really no way out of this? We're creating hell on Earth and there is no escape? Well, I certainly like to think there is still good in man, that eventually he will wake from his slumber to see the error of his ways and try to recreate the world as it once was. But alas, for most of the planet's inhabitants it will be too little too late. Many species are lost forever and we can only hope that new life will spring from the bones of the old, as indeed it has before.
Many people that have written to me, trying to cheer me up (thanks!) or in some cases just wanting to lure me into their respective religions. Bad call. In my humble opinion, religion has caused more trouble than most any phenomenon on the face of the Earth. How many people do you think have died, and continue to die, in the Holy name of some religion or other? As long as you can't come to some sort of agreement, I'll continue to believe what I very well want. And I won't try to push it on anyone either. If you're interested, you will find it anyway, which is what I invariably explain to people that are trying to sell me their views of life. Why do you try so hard to convince me? Do you not believe that the things you hold true are strong enough for me to find them without your pushing and shoving? If I feel that I need you, I will come look you up.
...
"Still, never mind - the sun is
high in the sky and it's going to be a wonderful day again. The crowds will be flocking
into the Exhibition Halls and the Dome of Discovery, craning their necks at Skylon and the
shimmering emerald city of tomorrow. The future is like a cupboard full of light and all
you have to do is find the key that opens the door. Bluebirds fly overhead, singing. What
a wonderful world!"
--- Excerpt from 'Behind the scenes at the museum', Kate Atkinson
1995.