I’ve heard children pose the question, “What would you do if you were king of the world?” Maybe everyone should ask themselves this question, but answer it as if it were real rather than wishful.
If I were king of the world, I might be tempted to make myself a billionaire, but what would be the point in a world so acutely impoverished by a chasm that stretches between the tiny global elite and the hundreds of millions who very literally scrape a living—often a mere existence—off the surface of the land? Or perhaps I’d be tempted to travel around the world and promote myself as some kind of artist or celebrity, but what would be the point in a world that contains uncountable unknown masses and that, every day and hour, is further strewn with an almost incomprehensible profusion of plastics and electronics?
I imagine myself, as world king, inevitably assembled with the world’s elite, drafting a plan: the Global Game Plan. A few items listed on it would include: the intrinsic worth of creatures and Earth; human overpopulation and consumption of resources; the distribution of wealth and privilege.
In his new book Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel, Carl Safina makes a brilliant observation: when it comes to the languages that other animals speak, what we need is not description but translation. A significant fraction of the world’s people has, by the early twenty-first century, expanded their circle of concern to embrace all human beings; we’ve in large measure moved beyond concern only for people who look and speak like ourselves: people today want to know that others enjoy basic human rights and freedoms the world over. But why should the circle be drawn at hominids? If the reality that other creatures think, feel, love, learn, play, and navigate a sense of identity becomes clear to us—which to my mind is inevitable—then we have a responsibility to extend to them the rights that we enjoy. Consider the fact that a large number of educated people quite recently considered brown-skinned persons and women unworthy of rights as well. All self-conscious beings have dignity, as do all living creatures and certainly the Earth herself; any benevolent King of the World would know this and move to expand humanity’s circle of concern.
The second issue that desperately calls for attention is the explosion in the sheer number of human beings on earth. Two consequences result: first, millions of children are born into poverty, sometimes dire poverty—even disease and starvation. I don’t know of anyone who would advocate for sterilization or forced abortions for the poor; everyone’s basic rights must be protected. But governments and humanitarian organizations must advocate reduced birthrates. I’ve read arguments that advanced nations need at least replacement birthrates so that the young can care for and support the elderly, and that economies depend on stable birthrates. But consider the second consequence: many billions of human beings each desire a vastly richer total life experience than other thinking animals do. People want to drive cars, fly to other countries, clothe themselves with colorful wardrobes, eat a variety of foods, and engage in numerous activities—all of which require resource extraction, distribution of products, and disposal of goods at a level that boggles the imagination. The planet cannot sustain such a number of people multiplied by the material implications of their every desire.
…which leads to the issue of distribution of wealth and privilege. Since the vast majority of the world’s population cannot live a Western, upper-middle class life because the global economy and supply chain does not permit it, nations maintain police, military, and borders to control the masses as they struggle to survive and ascend the very high ladder of wealth and privilege.
Any king or queen of the world would find him or herself quickly confronted with a planetary body being consumed by a uniquely human desire for survival and satisfaction at a rate that threatens the survival of many lifeforms the world over, including, ironically, that of human beings themselves. The situation is dire. The response, as in any emergency, must be multifaceted. Changing the hearts and minds of individuals everywhere is one facet. Policy decisions that all nations—including the United States—adhere to, regardless of any economic fallout—is another. The obsession with perpetual economic growth is illogical and calls for superseding: a finite planet cannot sustain infinite growth: not of economies, not of populations, not of desires. Our economic indices will have to swallow the reality that where there is growth, there must also be contraction.
The transformation in consciousness required to address global issues can be a joyful one, but that joy will be born of ingenuity, creativity, and a return to simplicity. Any king of the world would have to bring about transformation—within every nation and within every person—without force but through a message that inspires, animates, and encourages.
So the king is left with a question: what would the content of the message be, and how would it be delivered?
Image: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/images/index.html
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