Vintage , and not your usual dollop of niceness:
In honour of Earth Day, here’s evolutionary psychologist and friend of Richard Dawkins, Susan Blackmore (The Guardian, 2006) on the hard choices climate change forces on us:
If we take the unselfish route and try to save everyone the outcome is likely to be horrific conflict in the fight over resources, and continuing devastation of the planet until most, or all, of humanity is dead.
If we decide to put the planet first, then we ourselves are the pathogen. So we should let as many people die as possible, so that other species may live, and accept the destruction of civilisation and of everything we have achieved.
Finally, we might decide that civilisation itself is worth preserving. In that case we have to work out what to save and which people would be needed in a drastically reduced population – weighing the value of scientists and musicians against that of politicians, for example – a prospect that does not look at all easy from here.
Let’s chuck evo psych to start. We may not end up having to chuck anybody or anything else. Has anything happened between then and now that makes us sorry we didn’t take her approach?
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