Margaret Atwood - the Amoeba's Tale

Here is the gist of Margaret Atwood's tale

At midday an amoeba is sealed into a test-tube full of food. The amoeba feeds and divides in two every two minutes. By midnight all the food is gone, the test-tube is full of amoebas and they start to die from starvation.

At what time would the amoeba realise that there was a problem? (That is if they were capable of rational thought.) Well, at two minutes to midnight they are still content in the knowledge that there is still half a test-tube of food left……

Unfortunately, Man’s relationship with the planet is not so straightforward. We are rushing towards our equivalent of two minutes to midnight on several fronts at the same time.

With the World population heading towards 9 Billion around 2050 this means that we will need to produce the same amount of food over the next 40 years as mankind has consumed to date.

We have been burning up fossil fuels produced over millions of years at an ever increasing rate. Not only do we rely on them to farm, transport and store our food, we are increasingly reliant on them for fertilisers and pesticides to maintain crop yields.

Even without Global Warming we are still heading towards water bankruptcy. About 70 major rivers around the world are close to being totally drained in order to supply water for irrigation and reservoirs.

We are also heading towards a peak demand in Phosphorous, an element essential to life. Most of the world’s resources are being used to improve farm land. It forms an irreplaceable part of cell membranes, energy transfer molecules and DNA – it is truly part of every living thing.

At least we do still have some time to act. Governments will take time and persuasion to they have an impact. Individuals have no such inertia. You could start to play your part today