A future we can all look forward to

Few are altogether deaf to the preaching of pine trees. Their sermons on the mountains go to our hearts; and if people in general could be got into the woods, even for once, to hear the trees speak for themselves, all difficulties in the way of forest preservation would vanish.
- John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914)

We don't need pine trees. We can make decorative pine trees out of plastic. And we can build with steel, which is much stronger than wood.

We don't need mountains. They are nothing more than prehistoric piles of rock. Some of them explode and spew lava over people and landscape. Some rise like slow moving eruptions of a cancer of earth's skin. Some just sit there and wear down, killing some skiers who try to make use of the snow on their upper slopes each year.

We don't need rivers. They only usher rain (which nobody likes except those in deserts) down to the oceans, which are the trash and hazardous waste dumps of the world anyway.

We don't need streams. Fishermen can get their entertainment much easier at fairs, and we can grow the fish in artificial fish farms.

We don't need lakes. Mostly what we do with them now is spoil their purity with carbon monoxide and petroleum from our boats and personal watercraft.

We don't need forests. Entrepreneurs can create artificial forests for those who love to race their all terrain vehicles through them, tearing up the places where wild animals live. Only weirdos walk in the forests. Or joggers who want to be attacked by bears.

We don't need wild animals. Today's zoos provide the best environment that an animal could want, including a regular supply of food, mates and places to exercise. That's what they tell us. Who goes into the wilderness to look at wild animals anyway?

We don't need birds in the wild. Too many of them are dying from air pollution, oil spills and spreading cities taking over their habitat as it is. A controlled bird sanctuary is the best place for us to see birds.

In today's world, especially in North America, 85 percent of the population lives in cities and seldom makes it outside to see the wild places and things. That number is increasing and the number for other continents is rising steadily as rural and wilderness people realize that the city is the only place for real people to live.

What does it matter if the wildness (as Thoreau called it) of uninhabited places transforms into wasteland? We have our cities.

Where we feel safe.

In controlled environments.

Technology will save us.

We will all eventually live in the giant people zoos, with animal zoos for entertainment. And technology to keep us busy the rest of our free time.

If we can live on Mars or the Moon, then we can certainly survive on an earth that is mostly uninhabitable and desertified.

Think positive. The future is ours.

I wonder who will visit us in our zoos.

Bill Allin
'Turning it Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' striving to put a positive spin on humanity's self destruction.
Learn more at http://billallin.com but only if you don't like the scenario above.