Swirling

Recently, astronomers discovered that the movement we’ve interpreted as spinning for so many centuries is actually swirling. That is, instead of moving in place around an anchored point, the earth, the moon, the sun—the whole galaxy—is in constant motion. We are living in a whirlpool in the turbulent dark matter ocean of the universe.

The new theory makes sense, but it must be an unsettling thought to those who appreciate stability and resist change. The people most likely to utter that destructive phrase: “We’ve always done it this way.”

It sounds sensible. But the truth is we haven’t always done anything the way we do it today. Human life, behaviour and population has changed drastically in the past century. The way we do everything has evolved with new science and technology, with bigger populations, with era-defining wars and culture-shifting borders.

And slowly, over the past 50 years or so, we have been awakening to the effect our changes have had on the world. Our food, our water, our air, and the ground we stand on has changed. It’s changed because, like the swirling motion of our universe, everything changes all the time. It’s also changed because of the way we do things.

Take a look at a satellite image of the St. Lawrence. From the Algonquin highlands to the Adirondacks in New York State, the dark green of the great forest which once covered the entire eastern half of the continent is scarred with human evidence. Over a mere two centuries, roads, cities, farmland, mines and quarries have burned through the forest. Now the woods appear like two islands surrounded by us.

And below those scars, the invisible damage seeps into our lakes. Years of cutting and plowing and paving have rendered much of the ground incapable of capturing water, and overland runoff, collecting all the chemicals used on the crops that give us ethanol and cow feed and plantbased oils and plastics, rolls right into those lakes. We drink this water.

There is a great debate going on, about whether we should keep doing what we’re doing, whether we should utilize technology to create positive change, or whether we should return to the ways of our ancestors and farm and live more simply.

Scientists say we can’t keep plodding along. Eventually we’ll run out of potable water and arable land and all the resources we use to live these lives. Generations of urbanization and specialization make returning to a simpler way of life little more than a fantasy for many. And quibbles and conflicting ideas on how to use science to make change continue endlessly among those with too narrow a focus.

And in the meantime, we keep scarring this earth and polluting our water. The people who profit from the way things have always been done resist change. Even those of us who don’t profit can’t conceive of it.

Hopefully, we’ll figure it out. Those with good innovations will share them, and slowly, the way we’ve always done things will fade away. Either way, the earth will keep on swirling.

mihal@mihalzada.com