Yeast or Egg, the future of Humanity?

My Dad thinks of humans as akin to Yeast, we will eventually kill ourselves off, swimming in our own waste. I think of us like an embyro in an egg, we have to break out of our current growth mentality.

Yeast
Yeast

Yeast produce Alcohol as a waste product. Given enough sugar they will produce so much alcohol that they eventually kill themselves off when they are swimming in Alcohol (about 14-16% worth).
My Dad doesn’t care about all the environmental destruction being caused because he figures that the Earth will fix itself within a few million years just like it did when the dinosaurs were wiped out and it doesn’t matter to him if humanity dies within a hundred years or so, he figures he’s got less than 40 years left on the planet.
My response to that is that the Australian Aboriginals lived in balance with nature for (possibly) over 40,000 years. That shows that humans can live a sustainable lifestyle, although I’d prefer to use newer technology to allow us to do so.

 

Bird Embryo Development
Bird Embryo Development

My view is that humans are like an embryo of a baby bird growing inside an egg. The hope is that we have enough yoke to grow a beak and peck our way out of the shell. If we don’t make our way out then we will die inside the rotting egg.

To me the yoke is fossil fuels and our old ways of thinking, breaking out of the shell and feeling the sunlight is our transition to renewable energy, new forms of thinking. More collaboration instead of competition, shared access instead of private ownership, managing for abundance instead of scarcity and a systems approach to fixing the core problems instead of band-aid solutions.

I care about what it will be like as a human in 7 generations time and even 1,000 years time, which is why if we don’t change our ways I question if we will we still have bird, trees and even air to breathe. If we do change then I think the world will be a much more amazing place for everyone.

By Michael Kubler

Photographer, cinematographer, web master/coder.

2 comments

  1. I tend to agree with your dad. this post like many others has put forward the notion of “if we dont change”. Saying that doesn’t do anything, people wont stop spending money to buy the cheapest products that cause the most harm to the environment because its too late. we dont have enough space to grow our own food and stop buying from the super market. we dont have enough time to look after ourselves, so we work to pay for things that can. Our modern day notion of survival through the economy is the only option we have. unfortunately this results in poverty, famine and inequality with living standards of others but its all we can do. Our entire society is bound to globalisation and as a result can not stop working in the way we are. We cant stop driving because our jobs, families, homes, markets and social lives are not localised any more. We are yeast, the brewing process is globalisation and the alcohol is the social, environmental, political and economic destruction we are seeing in the world. Ive tried changing it, ive tried leaving it but at this point its too late. our survival depends on being the last one to not kill ourself.

    i used to think that another world was possible, but for that to happen you need to convince everyone that they dont need money. good luck with that, i trust you’ve already quit your job and your living outside of civilisation (because you need money to live in civilisation), but somehow i think you know that even while your not, that your not going to, and your not going to convince anyone else to either.

    its a rather negative way of looking at it, i know, but heres the sunny side, it will only get worse as long as everyone is unaware of why and how it is happening. Most people dont see how the environment and cyclical consumption dont work together, if we educate them then this is our one and only chance to stop the alcohol from killing us.

    keep educating and keep yelling and screaming because now more than ever people are beginning to wake up to how and why this is happening. for example, occupy and various other more frequent and more sizeable protests. around the world.
    good luck.

  2. It is make or break time for humanity, and the transition is most likely going to be painful. Always like this quote, just substitute the your with our:

    “Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding… And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy”
    ― Khalil Gibran

    Tamara :)

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