In a globalized world of unprecedented technological development, people have created an illusion of irresistibility in the face of hardship. Indeed, human ambition and cognitive abilities have led humanity to a place where the majority of diseases can be combated, and a machine can replace a large part of hard manual labor. However, in the celebration of congeniality, people have subconsciously separated themselves from the world they lived in, abandoning the realm of natural sciences. In Paul Gilding’s speech “The Earth is full,” the speaker dwells on the message that people tend to be driven by economic growth and live beyond the Earth’s means to pursue infinite growth on a finite planet. In order to dispel this illusion, Gilding presents qualitative evidence that the current course of action leads to the point of no return, as it will most certainly destroy the planet as people know it.
The only way to avoid this distraction before it is too late is to educate oneself on the matter of sociology and natural sciences to understand how the smallest human action may lead to irreversible damage to the Earth, whether it is pollution or steady overpopulation. Perhaps, one of the reasons people tend to be so ignorant in the context of science is their egocentrism and inability to believe in a power stronger than them. For centuries, human life has been worshipped as the most precious thing in society, but instead of perceiving being human as a responsibility, people started seeing themselves as the divine judges of this planet. Extensive knowledge of natural sciences allows a human being to understand how every little thing is interconnected in the universe to create something stronger.
People tend to see themselves as invincible only when they are a community because one person can do nothing to resist the power of nature. Paul Gilding says that people are more used to looking at something like a series of individual things rather than a system where everything exists as a part of a causal link. Indeed, without information and natural sciences, people will continue to fail to recognize their individual roles in a complex social system.