Are We Doomed?

Are we doomed as a civilisation? I know it seems a strange question but it has been playing on my mind recently.  We all know that we live on a world of finite resources with an expanding population, but technology will surely protect us. 

 

Over the weekend I watched an interesting programme called ‘Doomsday 2210’ in which they theorised on what will happen over the coming decades. The programme first looked at ancient cultures such as the Mayans and others where great civilisations disappeared almost overnight due to changes in climate etc.  The programme also looked at Rome where the continual expansion of the empire provided the resources to expand further, however when they got to a certain size they more or less imploded.

 

Many parallels can be drawn today as climates change and population expands we face water, food and resource shortages around the world.  One just has to look at the water behind the Hoover dam to see how much lower the water level is now compared to twenty years ago and that thousands still die of starvation around the world.

 

One scary fact is that whereas when the ancient civilisations collapsed it tended to be a very localised collapse, today it would be world wide. You only have to look at what happened during the recent banking crisis to see that we are all connected and in many ways what happens to one happens to all.  Another example of this was seen over the summer with the droughts in Russia affecting world Grain prices.

 

We are literally at a crossroads it seems; we can either ignore what is happening around us, hope for the best and face a total collapse of civilisation as we know it in the next few decades. Or we can embrace new technologies, discard fossil fuels and adjust planetary life styles so that civilisation may continue to flourish.

 

 

'Still your eyes are on the ground'

Dante wrote “Heaven wheels above you, displaying to you her eternal glories, and still your eyes are on the ground.” I have pondered over this for the past few days and it has had an impact.  It is so easy nowadays to get bogged down with all that is around us.

 

We have:

 

24 Hour news that in reality has about 15 minutes of news which it repeats 96 times over the course of a 24 hour period.

 

The majority of programmes on TV are reality TV with no plot and tend to be voyeurism at its worse showing us people that are generally rude, ignorant and have probably never done a good days work in their life, in other words they have scrounged of the state and us tax payers have supported them.

 

Computer games, internet etc are taking away peoples ability to interact with each other.

 

I won’t even go on about Global Terrorism, War, Famine, Fossil fuels running out and Economic power centres shifting etc

 

All in all what have little Beth and William got to look forward to as they grow up.

 

However back to where I started, “Heaven wheels above you, displaying to you her eternal glories, and still your eyes are on the ground.” As I say it is so easy to get bogged down without realising it and as Dante implies we just need to look up once in a while.

 

Standing out on the bridge wing just now I forced myself to take a step back and look up.  It is a gorgeous evening, mild with wonderful clear skies.  The full moon has left a silver road across the velvety darkness of the sea, leading to the horizon.  The stars are shining and although the sound of the water passing the ships hull is noisy it is still peaceful. It is amazing how five minutes of tranquillity makes the world seem an altogether different place.  I think that there are many of us in the western world that easily forget how lucky we are. We don’t have to deal with famine, floods, war, disease, as people in Africa, Asia and the Middle East do. I think we should be thankful for what we have and always seek to improve the lives of those around us, whilst appreciating what is all around us, a wonderful if sorely abused world.

 

Anyway that is enough of my rant for the time being and now a little dit on what has happened since I last wrote. I think the last Blog entry was just after Debbie and the two little ones came onboard. As always things have been busy and I have been crap at keeping my Blog up to date so here goes.  After a few more days on the south coast we headed up to the waters around Scotland again for some trials, during which I ended up doing watches for a few days.  It wasn’t too bad and I soon got back into the swing of things remembering all the old routines after all it is a few years since I last did a watch. Anyway it wasn’t to bad bobbing in around the Islands as at least it helped us shelter from the 60kt winds.

 

I did manage to get ashore once while we were up there and had a wonderful bike ride along the side of a Loch. After the initial hills the road ran nice and level right along the waters edge which was wonderful and peaceful.  It was just ashame I didn’t get ashore until gone 5 as there wasn’t much daylight left and I had no light fitted.

 

Anyway we are now back down south and I am looking forward to Friday as I am actually going to have a proper 72 this trip, makes a change, so I will get to go home and spend the weekend with Debbie and the little ones.

 

 

Four in a Cabin

We had a good week at sea the other week. I had rejoined the ship after my sick leave in Leith, unfortunately missing the port visit. I had spent some time in Leith a couple of years ago and had had a good time. We sailed to head around the other coast for an exercise, however our play mate broke down so we ended up just doing internal exercises and advancing our ETA. Advancing the ETA was good though as it meant Debbie and the little ones could come down to the ship early.

It is a shame we got in on the third as I missed Beth's second Birthday by a day. Debbie said that everyone had a nice day and little Beth really enjoyed opening her pressies.

Debbie had kept a few pressies back so she could open them onboard. One was a Teddy with a little screen displaying uploaded pictures. She really liked it and it means that when I am away she can go to bed with a little picture of me. The other was a key board which she took to immediately. It had a little microphone so she can sing a long to her tunes. It was noisy enough in the bar and not to welcome at 0645 in the morning. Luckily my neighbour was wearing earplugs so I don't think the noise woke him.

It was quite cosy in the cabin with four of us. The first night was awful as Beth and William had a really restless night. The second night was a bit better but uncomfortable as I was sleeping on the deck in a sleeping bag.

Meals were fun onboard but on Saturday we had a walk into town and took the wee ones for a Chinese.

Beth soon took charge and ordered the food after throwing her coke everywhere. It was great to have real food rather than ship food. Little William even tried the chopsticks.

He gave them up as a bad idea and just tucked in to the meal with his little hands.

After the meal William was even good enough to volunteer as duty driver,

I only hope that in 18 years time he is as willing to be duty driver.

Anyway only another day in port and then back to the sea for the weekend. We haven't got much sea time over the next Month or so but at least most of November will be at sea and then it will be December and time to go home.