The question to be asked now is, can we fix our mess? Yes, we can. Feasibly.

We’re not going to though, are we? Too much like hard work and, even worse, fixing things would cost money. Lots of money. The whole point of the modern economy is that we perpetually consume. Purchase. Use. Discard. (P.U.D.) Rinse and repeat.

Wind, wave, hydroelectric, and solar power are alternatives to the burning of fossil fuels. Sadly, we are perhaps stuck with nuclear fission for electricity generation, until such a time as we can figure out cold fusion. And, if we’re honest, we are aware that a lot of the trips that we make in our gas guzzlers are probably not essential. The moment we were warned that, eventually, oil reserves would be depleted, we became obsessed with bigger cars with bigger engines, but turned up our noses at alternatives such as hybrids and fully electric cars.

We should stop using quite so much plastic, and cease littering it everywhere. Plastic packaging can be replaced with biodegradable corn-starch and its derivatives. Mushroom root and stone paper are also in practical use.

We have reached the stage now where we need to give up such things as fish fingers, tuna and sushi. All seafood really. At least until the oceans have replenished themselves, and we are no longer on such a knife edge.

It may come as shock, but trees can be planted, and, there’s a good chance that they will grow. They do that. And maybe we could forgo our tendency to find a nice spot of arable land with potable water, and then build an urban or industrial centre on it. Then wonder where all the green has gone.

One alternative to preservatives and pesticides is genetically modified, or GM, foods. We have always, artificially bred crops in order to increase desirable traits. Higher yields, greater size, or a more attractive colour. Nothing, that you can purchase now, is the same as it was when agriculture started 11,000 or so years ago. Genetically modifying foods would speed up the process of increasing yields, nutritional value, and resistance to herbicides, drought and pests. But, as much as we gaze in horror upon the damage done by pesticides and other chemicals, we balk at the idea of getting down to the nitty-gritty of adapting crops at a DNA level. Declaring it unnatural.

Injecting livestock with steroids and hormones to fatten them up faster so we can stuff the result down our throats, and discard what we don’t want, is apparently okay though. Maybe it’s time to get an intervention for that fast-food addiction.

And we know that, we don’t really need that new thing. The old one still works, doesn’t it? It might not be as sparkly and shiny as the new thing (Ooh! Shiny!), but it’s still going.

But you simply must have that new thing, that is so much better than the old thing. That way you can show it off on social media. If you are not constantly purchasing and replacing old stuff with new stuff, then you are a bad person. Or even worse, “unhip”. Or whatever the modern equivalent is. Uncool? Unfashionable?

You could buy a reusable water bottle, and refill it from your tap each day. So why don’t you?

Let’s face it. We’re not reducing, we’re not reusing, and our waste is not so much recycled, as put somewhere we can’t see it. The South-East Asian nations usually. We’re going to run out of places to put stuff sooner or later.

Doesn’t matter. We are aware, and we don’t care. Do we? We’ve spent decades poisoning ourselves, and our environment. That was a lot of hard work. Why stop now?

Onwards and downwards