Dear God,
Things are going horribly wrong on the Planet Earth. Your species Homo sapiens is running wild, and it seems they can't get and maintain a grip long enough to reflect on what they're doing. The end result can only be catastrophe.
I am writing You because these humans will not listen to me. Apparently, I am beneath—I prefer beyond—their notice. But You, they'll listen to.
I know You are very busy, and perhaps You have not had time to look in on us here on Earth—it appears You have been "out to lunch" as the saying goes, but not to worry! You are God, and what can't You do?
I've prepared a small example which seems typical of what's going on here for Your convenience.
By the 1990s, the humans had almost killed off all the wild Atlantic salmon. This sort of thing happens all the time.
Atlantic salmon were once so abundant throughout New England's watersheds that hundreds of thousands of these wild fish migrated in and out of our rivers each year. Over the last two centuries, dams, overfishing, excessive logging, shoreline development, pollution, and industrial water withdrawals have degraded rivers, streams, and oceans critical to the salmon's survival. As a result, fewer than 2,000 salmon return annually to their spawning grounds in New England-barely 1 percent of the historic population. Today, the only remaining wild Atlantic salmon runs in our country are in a handful of Maine rivers and streams.
Even as early as the 19th century, humans were farm-raising Atlantic salmon. By 1997, "the Atlantic salmon aquaculture industry in eastern North America had grown to produce more than 70.5 million pounds annually."
Now, a company called AquaBounty Technologies has genetically altered the Atlantic salmon by inserting "growth" genes in it from two other edible fish, the Chinook salmon and the ocean pout. These new AquAdvantage® salmon will be much larger than natural farm-raised salmon, and will grow to eating size much faster.
You can readily see that humans are "playing God" with these new salmon. That can't be pleasing to You! The humans propose to replace Your salmon with their salmon. Other humans oppose the "Frankenfish" because they're afraid it will escape its pens and start breeding with wild salmon.
I suppose that's a concern, but it might behoove the humans to be more concerned with the fact that they have already killed off nearly all of the wild Atlantic salmon, which were once so abundant throughout New England's watersheds that hundreds of thousands of these wild fish migrated in and out of our rivers each year.
My chief concern, and the reason why I bring this small example to Your attention, was inadvertently expressed by an influential person named Zachary Karabell. I found the quote in The Atlantic's Don't Fear the 'Frankenfish': Why Rich Americans Should Drop Their War on Genetically Modified Foods.
Why be so concerned? On the plus side, GMOs may solve a key problem and enable global growth.
They may solve the Malthusian conundrum, and prevent what people have been fearing for centuries — namely that the earth cannot support more than a certain number of humans consuming what they consume. Still, GMOs are widely distrusted, even hated.
What has Karabell said here? AquAdvantage® salmon and other genetically-modified foods "may" solve the Malthusian conundrum, which in his formulation asserts that the earth cannot support more than a certain number of humans consuming what they consume. Presumably, then, thanks to Frankenfish and other stunning technological achievements, there would be no practical limit on how many affluent humans the Earth can support!
It appears that when You said
Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.
that the humans took that passage a little too literally. Or maybe You didn't say that! Maybe the humans just made it up to suit their own purposes. In any case, if You did say it, surely You didn't mean be fruitful and multiply endlessly without limit. After all, You also invented exponential growth functions, and exponential growth can not go on forever.
And then there is the problem of successful, influential people like Zachary Karabell. This brief bio ought to inform You sufficiently about what's going on here.
At River Twice Research, Karabell analyzes economic and political trends. He is also a senior advisor for Business for Social Responsibility. Previously, he was executive vice president, head of marketing and chief economist at Fred Alger Management, a New York-based investment firm, and president of Fred Alger and Company, as well as portfolio manager of the China-U.S. Growth Fund, which won a five-star designation from Morningstar.
He was also executive vice president of Alger's Spectra Funds, which launched the $30 million Spectra Green Fund based on the idea that profit and sustainability are linked. Educated at Columbia, Oxford, and Harvard, where he received his Ph.D., he is the author of several books, including Superfusion: How China and America Became One Economy and Why the World's Prosperity Depends on It (2009), The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election, which won the Chicago Tribune Heartland Award, and Peace Be Upon You: The Story of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Coexistence (2007), which examined the forgotten legacy of peace among the three faiths.
In 2003, the World Economic Forum designated Karabell a "Global Leader for Tomorrow." He sits on the board of the World Policy Institute and the New America Foundation and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a regular commentator on national news programs, such as CNBC and CNN, and has written for The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time, The Washington Post, The New Republic, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and Foreign Affairs.
I know that Your attention has been elsewhere lately, but if You were familiar with the current human situation on Earth, You would immediately see that Karabell, who is a global leader for tomorrow, always expresses the consensus, popular, albeit delusional view of the human future. That is why he is a global leader for tomorrow.
Clearly, taking such a stance is very socially advantageous for Karabell. He is a "regular commentator" for virtually every gatekeeper publication seeking to uphold and promote that view. He sits on the boards of many elite human institutions which take that view. He went to the best schools where that view is taught.
But as You are surely aware, this consensus foolishness can only lead to a cataclysm of "Biblical" proportions, and the humans will surely take most of the rest of the Animal Kingdom down with them. I am sure You care deeply about the other animals. After all, You made them!
Finally, I will point out the obvious to You, although I know that is not necessary. It is well-known that you intensely dislike False Idols, and it is easy to see why! And that is the real subject of this letter. Perhaps You have cast Your attention elsewhere because many of the most influential, popular humans no longer believe in You, or take You seriously. But quite obviously, they need to worship something, so they have replaced You with Themselves! Talk about idolatry!
The humans are in Big Trouble, and that's why I wrote You this letter today. I can only hope that You will communicate to them Your Displeasure about their recklessness with Your Creation.
Because as I said at the top, they will not listen to me. Thank You for your time and attention.
Sincerely, and with All Due Respect, Awe, Adulation, Etc.,
Dave Cohen
It's out of His hands now Dave.
If we are fit-for-purpose then Homo sapiens will continue on. If not, then we will become extinct. Along with many other species, granted, but, that's Life I guess.
We will do what we do because that's what we are. Where that takes us will become apparent in time.
No-one can sustain the unsustainable. Not even Him.
Posted by: Clyde | 03/25/2013 at 12:08 PM