It’s kind of amazing if you really think about it. We’ve got to a point where we don’t have to think about food, we don’t have to think about survival. We don’t even realize the subconscious narrative that we’re all going to live long lives. In the 1st World, it comes as a shock, as something terrible, when someone dies young. In so many ways this is a good thing.

But it also removes the fragility of life from our experience. It hinders our appreciation for life itself, for the balance and beauty that exist on this planet. And it affects our mindset and our choices. Survival seems a given, catastrophe so far way. Why doesn’t matter if I recycle? So what if I use a lot of energy? Why must we move away from fossil fuels? Everything is fine.

It’s just that we’ve also reached the point where we will start to see consequences in our lifetimes. We will see the very real effects of climate change, and of our exponentially growing population. The danger lies in its gradual occurrence. Will enough of us notice it in time, will enough of us change, will enough of us act? That’s the 8 billion dollar question. There is a great challenge before us. To defeat it we must work together. It will require sacrifice of comfort and convenience. What will we do with the time given to us?