{"id":63507,"date":"2022-09-14T06:59:25","date_gmt":"2022-09-14T11:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=63507"},"modified":"2022-09-14T06:59:25","modified_gmt":"2022-09-14T11:59:25","slug":"a-few-of-the-things-we-can-do-on-the-way-down-from-peak-humanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=63507","title":{"rendered":"A Few of the Things We Can Do On the Way Down From Peak Humanity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by\u00a0Michiel Annaert<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A Few of the Things We Can Do On the Way Down From Peak Humanity<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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I think we\u2019re done. Well, almost.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I saw the first movie The Matrix when it came out in theaters. I remember how they depicted the height of humanity in 1999. I remember how I felt watching the scene where they recounted the history of the Matrix and how it came to be. I recall seeing the tall shiny building with \u201cMalfa\u201d on the side, and the well-dressed people walking on the virtual street. Then there was the virtual woman in the red dress. At the time, that was peak humanity to me.<\/p>\n

23 years later, I can\u2019t help but think we\u2019ve crested the peak of humanity. I see our birth rates declining, our education systems declining, and our general welfare declining. There used to be a recognizable sense of optimism in America. I don\u2019t see it now. There used to be a sense that we could recover from our setbacks, but that\u2019s gone, too.<\/p>\n

And yet I also see a sense of relief. It\u2019s like humans have finally realized that they\u2019re stressing the planet too much and that we must make a change. We need to use restraint. I also see that the damage we\u2019ve done to the earth has placed very real constraints on our capacity to grow.<\/p>\n

A recent study has shown that air pollution significantly increases our risk of cancer<\/a>. Another study has shown that\u00a0microplastics are making us obese<\/a>. And yet another study has shown that\u00a0hormone disruptors<\/a>\u00a0have cut our birthrates. We\u2019re still trying to figure out what\u00a0forever chemicals<\/a>\u00a0are doing to our bodies. If we\u2019re not careful, by 2050 in vitro fertilization will be required to have kids because pollution is such an effective contraceptive.<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo by\u00a0Michiel Annaert\u00a0on\u00a0Unsplash A Few of the Things We Can Do On the Way Down From Peak Humanity I think we\u2019re done. Well, almost. I saw the first movie The Matrix when it came out in theaters. I remember how they depicted the height of humanity in 1999. I remember how I felt watching the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[33158,33157],"class_list":["post-63507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-survival-2","tag-peak-humanity","tag-scott-dunn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63508,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63507\/revisions\/63508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}