Crises do not exist in the shortage of energy
but in the inflating residual pollution by mass consumption.
In 1980, economic growth exceeded the limit of the earth.
Further growth will degrade the biosphere becoming
a residual contamination.
As a result, living species are drastically decreasing
and the Earth’s ice began to melt tangibly.
These are the evidences which prove that the Earth has limitation.
–The Gap between the rich and the poor causes all the evil–

An Airline Captain’s messages written with sense of crises for the Earth’s environmental issues that has been witnessed from the stratosphere since 1960s.

These are the sincere prayer for happiness for the succeeding generations.

These are not my own words but the concluding part from “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity” signed by more than 1,600 of the world’s leading scientists, including almost all of the Nobel laureates in natural sciences, who felt a sense of crisis at the outcome of the Environment Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. (See World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity)

If the Nobel Prize has any academic authority, the contents of this warning, submitted only a few months after the Rio Summit, must contain serious scientific evidence. However, this warning was virtually ignored.

It is 2017 and 25 years have passed since then. Irreversible deadline of the scientists’ warning had probably gone by now.

According to the scientific index “Ecological Footprint”, excessive mass consumption has surpassed the Earth’s capacity around 1980, and thereafter the portion of the consumption that has exceeded the Earth’s limitations could not be purified and accumulated as residual pollution.

Global warming is one of the phenomena of residual pollution caused by carbon dioxide. As a result, the Earth’s ice began to melt tangibly and the sea level is rising.

At around the same time, a number of living species started to disappear drastically. If the current speed of extinction continues, all living creatures would disappear in 3 centuries.

These phenomena of melting ice and decreasing living species are the evidences to prove that the Earth has limitation. (See Chapter-5 Ecological Footprint)

Should human beings keep aspiring to the current 3% of economic growth, the consumption and residual pollution would double every 23 years. However the one-and-only Earth cannot physically support this consumption.

The more the economy grows, the more residual pollution increase exponentially, and those costs for residual pollution curtail other really necessary budgets including welfare and social structure.

These are the reason why we cannot feel that our lives have become rich, especially after 1980s, despite the fact that GDP is increasing. (See Chapter-6 Can we become happier with a growing GDP?)

Considering these facts, the world economy and social structures would be thrown into confusion within 2 decades at the most. But the world leaders are still pursuing economic growth.

At 2013, Global Warning Conference (IPCC), stating that the air temperature would rise almost 5℃ by the end of the century. In the Earth’s history, this situation is identical to that of 35 million years ago, when there was no ice on the Earth, carbon dioxide density was as high as approx. 450ppm and the sea level was higher than the current level by more than 70 meters.

In 1980, the density of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere exceeded 340ppm, which is considered to be the upper limit for the existence of the Ice in the northern hemisphere, and then the Ice actually started melting away.

Furthermore, in 2015, the density of carbon dioxide has surpassed 400ppm and keeps increasing 2ppm per year, which will reach 450ppm by 2040 – only 23 years from now.

In other words, we, mankind, are turning the clock back to the age when there was no Ice on the Earth and the sea level was more than 70 meters higher.

Then, why has such a crisis of humanity occurred?

The gap between the rich and the poor is the root of all the evil might be the answer.

The society allowing freedom of human greed has induced the destruction of the Earth’s environment and the gap among people generating envy and hostility in peoples’ minds, thus the world conflicts would occur.

These destruction and the gap or world peace are all interlocked as contemporary social issues.

If the young people keep on being indifferent to politics and let the older generation run the country, the young people will end up living as the working poor under an unbearable living environment degraded by residual contamination.

There is a simple principle about possession of goods and happiness. If there is no difference between the rich and the poor among us, the desire to have more things than others will be diminished, and we could be in peace in soul and be kind to the others too.

Those society could be realized by young generation taking advantage of the system of democracy, in which each person has one vote. It is not just a far-off dream for young people to return to the peaceful and beautiful world.

Hope is in the change to hyper-progressive tax system to resolve the gap society. If the gap disappears human desires will also be diminished, and we could return to a roadmap that will stay within the limits of the earth’s capacity.

Complicated policies and mental theories are not necessary. Just change the tax system and the flow of money will change, which in turn will induce a change in the way of life and the view of the world.

I want young people to think seriously about their futures so that they can spend peaceful and happy days. Upraise working poor!