Tag Archives: environment

Biography and Biology

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I’ve found conflicting information about who said this first, but I love the quote, “Your biography becomes your biology.” It also works the other way, “Your biology becomes your biography.”

Our habits and routines, whether good or bad, affect our biology. Our overall energy levels and health affect what we do with our lives. We tend to place blame on one or the other of these, but it’s a symbiotic relationship between our physical makeup and the physical environment that we consistently expose our bodies to.

Eat foods that are not nutritious or create imbalances in our sugar or energy levels, and we end up exercising less, and being more lethargic. Work out regularly and start noticing positive results, and we start thinking more about how to fuel or bodies well.

Sometimes we are dealt bad biology, and we have less to work with… allergies, a bad back, a chronic illness… sometimes we are dealt a bad biography, and it’s harder to change… a life altering accident, a tough or traumatic childhood, and it’s harder to change. But more often or not there are windows of opportunity to deal with these factors in some way, to better ourselves and the circumstances we face.

The greatest opportunity we have is to alter our biography. The past influences the future, but it doesn’t write it. We can be authors of our own biography… and ultimately change our biology too (to varying degrees). What’s essential is that we act, that we make intentional decisions about who we are and who we want to become.

8 billion people

The world has surpassed 8 billion people. 25 years ago it was less than 6 billion and overpopulation was a major concern for our planet. It isn’t so much anymore. Populations in many countries is decreasing with the average age of people being greater than the childbearing age. Older populations don’t have kids. People living in expensive urban cities, where more people live than ever before, have less kids.

The population of the earth is still going to grow from here, but the exponential growth we’ve seen is slowing down. This is a good thing because our earth couldn’t withstand continued growth like we saw in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s.

The interesting thing to come with respect to population growth will be the uneven distribution of the population. How will this affect countries? Work forces? Urbanization? Immigration? It’s not the growing numbers that we will be worried about, it’s the geography of the population that will be the population concern of the future.

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Note: Going from 6 billion to 8 billion in 25 years is a 33% jump in population… I didn’t mention that above, but it’s worth noting because if that pattern continued we’d be over 10.6 billion in another 25 years, and then just the numbers alone would have been the greatest concern.

Five to Eight Percent

When I think about the modern company with shareholders, I can’t help but think that this system is designed to undermine ethical and environmental progress. There are companies laying off workers right now while providing shareholders huge dividends and returns. The system is flawed. These returns help drive the company stock price up at the expense of ethically growing the company… instead of helping workers keep their job and keep their wages fair in comparison to what shareholders get

What if companies promised shareholders a maximum of a 5%-8% return? Any company profits beyond that are invested back into the company, towards employees, and/or towards environmental or community initiatives. If this were the case, companies would still have the same commitment to meet shareholders targets, but those targets wouldn’t be based on greed. Instead they would be focussed on doing the most good.

I’m not an economist and don’t know all the ins and outs of how this would work? I don’t know what the magic return percentage should be? But I do know that the current model is based on greed and unsustainable growth. If companies capped shareholder returns at a safe investment amount, and promised to do good with what would have been more returns, I think there would still be a market for the stocks… And these companies could help make the world a better place.

Significantly Insignificant

As far as scientists know:

  • The human species originated in Africa about 250,000 to 300,000 years ago.
  • Dinosaurs existed for over 180,000,000 years.
  • Dinosaurs went extinct about 66,000,000 years ago.

To put this into perspective, as a percentage, humans have been around 0.167% as long as dinosaurs were. Put another way, dinosaurs existed for 600 times longer than humans have so far. Beyond that, dinosaurs have been extinct for 200 times longer than humans have been around.

We are a species that has lived for an insignificant amount of time, on a tiny planet, not far from an insignificant sun, in an insignificant part of our galaxy, which lies in an insignificant part of our universe. We are insignificant specs of cosmic dust.

Yet we are conscious, thinking and dreaming entities, who are creative, inventive, and future focused. It’s unlikely that we are the only beings capable of this in the universe, but it is likely we will be extinct before we meet any other beings as capable of thinking and creating like us… or destroying like us. To the earth, our cities are like parasites. We have created weapons of mass destruction. We consume natural resources at an alarming rate. We have caused the extinction of countless species. We have had a significant impact on our planet.

We are showing our significance in the ugliest of ways. Perhaps we should think about being a little more insignificant, because at this rate, it’s unlikely that we’ll be around as a species for any significant amount of time.

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The ugly lawn

Our house sits between the houses of two retired people that seem like they live to take care of their lawns. I, on the other hand, don’t care that much. So, I’m that guy with the ugly lawn.

I’ve never understood the pride people get in the perfect green lawn? The pesticides, the meticulous grooming and weeding, the moss-killing, and the desire to keep it at some imaginary ‘perfect’ height. And the watering… so much water poured onto our tiny green spaces. I water the garden, but the grass? Why? I’ve read that lawns consume between 30% and 60% of urban water use, depending on where in North America you live. I’m not sure how that compares globally?

That’s insane.

So with apologies to my neighbours, and a special thanks to the one that will cut my lawn for me when I’m busy, I’m sorry that you are stuck with my ugly lawn next to yours… But I’m not actually sorry about my ugly lawn.