The 59th Minute

David Suzuki, the world-renowned environmentalist from Canada was at the Sydney Opera House last week to talk about his passion - the environment.

He presented a case that our Mother Earth is in the 59th minute of a suicidal path of economic growth.

Mr Suzuki asks us to imagine putting 1 bacteria cell, which divides every minute, into a test tube full of food. This is the exponential growth, which is the path of humanity when it believes in unlimited economic growth.

"At time zero, you have 1 cell; one minute later, you have 2; two minutes you have 4; three minutes, you have 8; four minutes later, you have 16."

"That is exponential growth," he said "And at 60 minutes, the test tube is completely full of bacteria and there is no food left - a 60-minute cycle."

"When is the test tube half full?" he asked. "Well, the answer, of course is at 59 minutes; but a minute later, it is completely full."

"So at 58 minutes, it is only 25% full; 57 minutes, it is 10 1/2% full. At 55 minutes of the 60-minute cycle, it is only 3% full."

"Therefore, if at 55 minutes, one of the bacteria said to its companions that they had a poplulation problem, the other bacteria would be incredulous because 97% of the test tube would be empty and they had been around for 55 minutes!"

"Yet, they would have only 5 minutes left..."

"How do we add even a fraction of 1% more of air, water, soil or biodiversity?", Mr Suzuki asked.

"We cannot!! The biodiversity of our planet Earth is fixed and finite!!"

"And every biologist I have talked to agrees with me - we are past the 59th minute", he said.

The above conversation was really scary. It seems that in our greed and self-absorption for relentless consumption, we are all rushing towards the path of mutual destruction.

We never really think that each of our actions affect the eco-system and the biodiversity of Mother Earth. We delude ourselves that She can provide us with unlimited resources, for us to use, consume and discard with no consequences.

Well, as the recent news about hurricanes, wild weathers, droughts, long winter storms, volcanoes and earthquakes around the world is showing us, Mother Earth is struggling to maintain its equilibrium amidst all the damages that we are doing to Her.

So, please help Mother Nature and ultimately, your loved ones and yourself.

Cut down on your blatant consumption. Ask yourself if you really need more material things to be happy. Pause and consider before you splurge on the latest "In" thing or fashion. Can you live without buying any of your "wants" and still be happy?

Something for you to think about as you go through your life every day.

Remember, we are at the 59th minute already...