Have you forgotten?
At four minutes past midnight on 24 March, (1989), a cold-water reef ripped the thin skin of the Exxon Valdez‘s single hull, releasing the equivalent of about 17 Olympic swimming pools of oil into Prince William Sound, Alaska. It was the worst ever oil spill in US waters until 2010, when the Deepwater Horizon spill leaked one Exxon Valdez into the Gulf of Mexico every five days for three months.
Le Behemoth, (aka Exxon Valdez), will soon be no more. Unfortunately, much of the oil the ship spilled remains, and continues its toxic predation.
We may one day be visited by aliens who possess greater powers and technologies than our own, but until that day arrives, (and based upon the most recent science), humankind is the only known living thing within the observable universe with the capability and capacity to annihilate entire species, eradicate ecosystems and — potentially — destabilize and destroy the biosphere of our planet.
That’s a hell of a thing to have in one’s curriculum vitae.
But it wasn’t always like that.
Humanity was, for thousands and thousands of years, barely able to leave a dent or scratch upon the surrounding environment from one generation to the next. Granted, the ancient Egyptians and a few other scattered civilizations were fairly successful at leaving the odd, sturdy thing behind, but really, that stuff isn’t all that old, and it never involved the total destruction of much of anything. And even though tribal warfare has done its bloody part to obliterate competing tribes throughout history, the nasty process never had, until quite recently, the ability to make everybody’s tribe extinct.
But that didn’t mean we didn’t keep trying.
I don’t want to give the impression that I’m a Luddite. Nothing could be further from the truth. However, I do think we, humankind, have a pathetic, deplorable history of protecting things from unanticipated (or in some cases, anticipated but callously disregarded) consequences when we inserted our new technology into an environment where it didn’t exist before.
And now, in modern times, we’re able to create and deploy technologies with potential blowbacks that are way beyond our ability to effectively control. The Exxon Valdez spill is just one example of uncontrollable blowback.
Some scientists predicted that the oil would degrade quickly, but 20 years later, 87 cubic metres of the stuff was found to be sequestered beneath stony beaches, where it continues to kill otters that dig up clams.
If one factors in a few orders of magnitude, the Deepwater Horizon disaster and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant are, likewise, wretched examples of uncontrollable blowback. Now multiply those orders of magnitude and consider the possible blowback coming from the extraction process of fracking — with the capability of permanently poisoning enormous fresh water aquifers — or the proliferation of nuclear weapons throughout the world. Both of those things own mind-numbingly horrendous, potential consequences.
If history teaches us anything, it reveals a characteristic of human nature that plays over and over, generation after generation: Our Village memory is too short-lived. Or perhaps hubris gets the best of us. For whatever reason(s), we don’t put enough importance upon remembering a very simple thing, and allow me to get all George Carlin for a moment: Shit happens. No matter what, shit is going to happen. The Universe is made up of shit happening everywhere.
To be precise, it should probably be noted that shit happens to systems. And the more complex the system?
Right. You get the idea.
Another thing to note is that most systems are amalgamations of smaller systems that make up the whole.
Think bicycle. It’s a system of systems. Now think human. Big-time system of systems. Now put ’em together. I don’t care how much attention you pay to maintenance for the bike or healthcare for the human, at some point, shit is going to happen to that system. If you happen to be the human on the bike and it’s your lucky day, the happening shit will be nothing more than the chain slipping off the sprocket and getting stuck. Yes, it’s a pain in the butt, but it’s no big deal. However, if, instead of a simple chain slip, the pedal drops off at the moment you’re applying full power, it will most assuredly not be your lucky day. (Unless, of course, you happen to be wearing a protective cup, but who wears a cup when they ride a bike?)
Quick Aside
A quaint but thankfully now defunct cottage industry blossomed long ago in Italy as a result of a certain inventor by the name of Antonio Castratolio. Unfortunately, old Antonio was quite strong in the conceptualization of ideas and devices, but a bit weak in the execution of the fabrication. As a result, the cycle contraption he crafted in his little workshop and dubbed the Eunucycle, (which became quite popular with young boys throughout the region), could turn on a dime (or whatever the coin of the realm was at that time) and be pedaled to breakneck speeds. But it had the wretched habit of snapping off pedals at the precise moment the rider was exerting maximum, downward force.
The effect was glottal, to say the least.
Choirmasters throughout Italy gleefully purchased Eunucycles by the dozens, and in very short order, packed their lofts with erstwhile Eunucyclists. (The term was later shortened.)
But it was a fad, and fads, as everyone knows, have their day and then disappear. Same with Antonio’s invention.
Where was I?
Ah, yes, unintended consequences.
We, humankind, don’t spend enough time thinking about them before we do things. And when the inevitable blowback arrives … when the shit happens … Humanity gets a really stupid look on its face and thinks:
Gosh, I didn’t see that coming.
