We Interrupt WYD08 for This Nihilistic Message

I learned a new word to tonight, and I am just dying to use it.

This evening, I attended a symposium as part of the opening ceremonies for the University of Sydney Institute for Sustainable Solutions (warning: very boring hyperlink - better if you don't go there). The institute fosters a results driven collaboration among researchers from the fields of health, engineering, chemistry, agriculture, and economic policy to try to solve the world’s problems by ending poverty, feeding the populace, and halting climate change. They have 25 million dollars. Oh, and while they are at it, they are going to rid Australia of Cane Toads, too.

I pretty much knew I was a nihilist before I entered The Great Hall, I just didn’t have a tidy label for it. The environmental cynic that lives inside my brain normally keeps me away from crowds of hopeful idealists discussing the future of the planet. My general opinion that ‘we are already totally fucked’ is not very popular amongst people who truly believe that buying compact fluorescent light bulbs will save the Great Barrier Reef. I made an exception on this occasion, because I am an open minded nihilist who likes to constantly challenge my beliefs with new information.

And there was free booze.

And I really wanted an excuse to belong inside of one of the most beautiful buildings on campus.

One of the speakers claimed that there are three reactions to apocalyptic information: nihilism (eat, drink and be merry - for tomorrow we die), fundamentalism (nothing ever really changes), and activism (let's hand out flyers downtown!). According to the speaker, only activism is rooted in hope. I just don’t see how anyone can look at charts filled with alarming data and graphs of dire exponential curves and experience anything other than total despair.

The keynote address was given by Dr Jeffrey Sachs, a visiting scholar from a similar institute in the US. Although his talk dealt primarily with the economics of planetary sustainability, I still came away with the conclusion that we are already totally fucked. In fact, his talk was so alarming that a man in the row next to me had a heart attack half way through. Luckily, the audience was filled with health professionals, so there was a cardiologist on hand to give him immediate attention.

Eventually, Dr Sachs got around to the upbeat conclusion of his talk. In order to build a sustainable planet, we need only do three things. 1) Eliminate extreme poverty, 2) Control the population of the planet - and by 'planet' he meant 'Africa', and 3) Find a way to live harmoniously while we use our collective knowledge to build a global ethic that will allow for real progress. Indeed, he claimed, and I tend to agree, that WAR is our biggest obstacle to social advancement because it detracts time and resources from our common interests.

Some of his graphics reminded me of a talk I gave to my eighth grade class about the population dynamics of the planet. I reckon that was the last time I ever felt so passionately about the future, passionate enough to resort to activism. It was then that I decided not to have children. And if there were one agenda that I could really put my energy behind, it would be to try to undermine the shameful papal agenda of denying birth control to impoverished women. I truly believe that stemming the tidal wave of human reproduction is the most effective weapon that can be used against our dismal prospects.

I may be a nihilist, but I am a hopeful nihilist.