What is Galileo Doing Tonight?, by
Steven E. Salmony
The Return of Omega ~ An Exploration of Human Evolution Going Forward, by Carlos Cuellar Brown
How Not to Be the Easter Police: On the Resurrection of the Earth, by John J. Thatamanil
Against 'Sustainability' and Other Plastic Words, by
Andrew Nikiforuk
To Conjure the Future We Want, We Need a Revolution of the Heart, by Cherise Morris
The Universal Precautionary Principle: New Pillars and Pathways for Environmental, Sociocultural, and Economic Resilience, by Ashli Akins, Phil O'B. Lyver, Hugo F. Alrøe,
and Henrik Moller
Fascism Is on the March ~ We Need Radical Education to Fight Back, by Henry A. Giroux
The Problem is Capitalism, by George Monbiot
Scientists Warn the UN of Capitalism's Imminent Demise, by Nafeez Ahmed
Degrowth is Utopian, and That's a Good Thing, by
Giorgos Kallis
Fear and Self-loathing in the Anthropocene, by Ian Rappel
Approaching Climate Change with Caution, by Sam Bleicher
The Climate Change Story is Half True, by Gail Tverberg
A Journey of No Return, Not a Circular Economy, by
Herman Daly
Agroecology: A Systems Approach, by
Louisa Chalmer
An Internationalist Green New Deal, by
Chris Saltmarsh
Rebelling Against the Extinction Rebellion, by Larry Kummer
The Thin Green Line: Scientists Must Do More to Limit the Toll of Burgeoning Infrastructure on Nature and Society, by William Laurance
Leaders Unite in Appeal to Protect Amazon as Deforestation Accelerates, by Julie Mollins
The Reason Renewables Can't Power Modern Civilization Is Because They Were Never Meant To, by Michael Shellenberger
Think Native Grasslands Are Just a Bunch of "Boring Grass"? Think Again, by Chris Helzer and Tina Deines
Housing Growth Threatens Biodiversity ~ Are We Ignoring Fundamental Causes?, by Patrícia Dérer
The Triad of Furies ~ Human Overpopulation, Immigration, and Reproductive Rights, by João L. R. Abegão
Toxic Masculinity: Toxic for Who?, by Chuck Derry
What is Galileo Doing Tonight?
Steven E. Salmony
June 2019
The years taken for every billion people to be added to the world's population,
and the years that population was reached (with future estimates).
Source: Wikipedia, based on United Nations population data.
My hope would be that the great man is resting in peace and that his head is not spinning in his grave. How, now, can Galileo possibly have peace? So few scientists speak out clearly and loudly regarding whatsoever they believe to be true about at least one root cause of the distinctly human-driven global predicament looming so ominously before humanity: human population dynamics and overpopulation of Earth. The human community could soon be confronted by multiple global ecological threats to future human wellbeing and environmental health that appear to result directly from the unbridled overproduction, overconsumption, and overpopulation activities of the human species now overspreading the Earth and threatening to ravage the planetary home we are blessed us to inhabit. Many, too many leaders and a predominant coterie of the 'brightest and best' experts are choosing to remain silent rather than acknowledge science. Please consider how the elective mutism of so many of the most fortunate and knowledgeable elders among us could be contributing mightily to the ruination of Earth and its environs as a fit place for human habitation.
Where are the intelligent leaders and established professionals with appropriate expertise who will stop colluding in silence, who are willing to examine and report on science that exists in the form of solid, uncontested research? Look at the dismaying disarray in which we find ourselves now and how far we have to travel in a short time to move the human family away from precipitating some unimaginable sort of global ecological wreckage. What would the world we inhabit look like if scientists like Galileo had chosen not to disclose science and instead adopt a code of silence? In such circumstances Galileo, as well as scientists today, would speak only about scientific evidence that the super-rich and most powerful people of the day believe to be politically convenient, religiously tolerable, economically expedient, socially correct, and culturally prescribed. By so doing, Galileo and modern-day scientists would effectively breach their responsibilities to science and duties to humanity to tell the truth as they see it, as best they can report it.
Heretofore hesitant and inert scientists are called upon to follow the good example of Galileo. The politically correct silence of so many knowledgeable but apparently dumbstruck experts on one hand, as well as the incessant mass media jabber of sycophants and other minions of wealthy power brokers on the other hand, could be killing the world we inhabit as well as life as we know it. Most scientists have not actively engaged in inimical 'sins of commission,' as have too many deceitful, chattering experts; and yet too many scientists on our watch have chosen to maintain their silence by not speaking out 'as if each one was a million voices.' It appears scientists have been and continue willfully to deny the best available scientific evidence that specifically relates to human population dynamics. Is their collusion to remain electively mute correctly described as a sin of omission or a lie of silence? If science does not overcome silence, then much of the world the human community believes we are preserving and protecting will be irreversibly degraded and relentlessly dissipated, if not destroyed outright. Surely, truthful empirical reports from intellectually honest and moral courageous scientists regarding the population dynamics of the human species and the human overpopulation of Earth will give Galileo Galilei peace.
|
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Steven Earl Salmony, Ph.D., M.P.A., established The AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population in 2001. He lives in Fearrington Village, North Carolina, USA, and can be contacted at sesalmony@aol.com.
|
![[groups_small]](groups_small.gif)